Comparison of tibiofemoral angle and tibiofemoral joint space measurements on knee radiographs in young and older adults

Objective: It is known that there are changes in bone alignment and narrowing of the joint space in the knee joint in problems such as osteoarthritis that can be seen in advanced ages. In this study, we aimed to determine whether there are age-related changes in knee joint bone alignment and joint space width in healthy adult men aged 18-35 years and 45-65 years without any knee problems. Materials and Methods: Knee joint radiographs of men aged 18-35 years (Group 1, n=50, 30.7±3.2 years) and 45-65 years (Group 2, n=50, 54.8±7 years) with a normal body mass index and without any pathologic diagnosis were taken to determine the bony alignment of the knee joint and the angle between the axes of the femur and tibia and the distance between the lateral and medial condyles were measured to determine the joint space width. ImageJ (v. 1.54d) program was used for the measurements. Prior to measurement, the intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated for intra-observer reliability and consistency by repeated measurements on 10 random radiographs at 1-week intervals, and measurements were started when the correlation was at least 0.75 for each parameter. Femur-tibia angle and femur-tibia joint gap width were measured between the inner and outer condyles and compared between the groups by independent sample t test. p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: No significant difference was found between the demographic data of the groups except for age (p>0.05). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for observer reliability was good and very good. There was no difference in femur tibia angle (FTA) between age groups on the right (p=0.397) and left (p=0.280). When Group 2 was compared with Group 1, joint space width was found to be significantly narrower between both lateral and medial condyles in both knees (p<0.0001). Conclusion: In men without any radiographic symptoms, it has been shown that there is a significant narrowing of the joint space width with age, but the change in bone alignment is not significant. It can be said that narrowing of the joint space is a facilitating factor for problems such as osteoarthritis seen in advanced ages. Keywords: tibiofemoral joint, lower extremity alignment, knee osteoarthritis, radiography, male