Understanding stresses within the knee joint is central to understanding knee function, and the etiology and progression of degenerative joint diseases such as post-traumatic osteoarthritis. In this study, in vivo gait kinematics of four ovine subjects were recorded using a highly accurate Instrumented Spatial Linkage (ISL) as each subject walked on a standard treadmill. The subjects were then sacrificed, and the right hind limbs removed. Ten purpose-built Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors were positioned within each stifle joint and used to measured contact stresses on the articulating surface of the tibial plateau as the recorded gait was replicated using a 6-degrees-of-freedom parallel robotic system. This study provides the first accurate, direct measurement of stress in a joint during in vivo gait replication. It was hypothesized that the results would indicate a direct link between gait kinematics and measured stress values. Contrary to this expectation no direct link was found between individualistic differences in kinematics and differences in stress magnitudes. This finding highlights the complex multifactorial nature of stress magnitudes and distribution patterns across articular joints. The results also indicate that stress magnitudes within the knee joint are highly position dependent with magnitudes varying substantially between points only a few mm apart.

了解膝关节内的压力对于了解膝关节功能以及退行性关节疾病（如创伤后骨关节炎）的病因和进展至关重要。在这项研究中，在体内步态四个绵羊受试者使用高度精确的记录运动学我nstrumented小号（ε2）大号inkage（ISL），为每个受试者上的标准跑步机走去。然后处死受试者，取出右后肢。十个专门制造的F ibre B ragg G等级 ( FBG) 传感器放置在每个膝关节内，并用于测量胫骨平台关节面上的接触应力，因为使用 6 自由度平行机器人系统复制记录的步态。这项研究首次提供了对体内关节应力的准确、直接测量步态复制。假设结果将表明步态运动学和测量的应力值之间存在直接联系。与这种预期相反，在运动学的个体差异和应力大小的差异之间没有发现直接的联系。这一发现突出了关节间应力大小和分布模式的复杂多因素性质。结果还表明膝关节内的应力大小高度依赖于位置，大小在仅相距几毫米的点之间变化很大。