title: Ultrasonographic measurement of the femoral cartilage thickness in patients with transfemoral amputation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the distal femoral cartilage thickness of the non-amputee sides in patients who had unilateral transfemoral amputation with those of healthy subjects by using ultrasound.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty transfemoral amputees (27 male, 3 female) and 30 age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched healthy controls were included. Functional usage of the prosthesis was evaluated by using Houghton score. The cartilage thickness was measured from the following midpoints; medial femoral condyle (MFC), intercondylar area, and lateral femoral condyle.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty patients with unilateral transfemoral amputation (mean age; 38.6 ± 9.5 years) and 30 healthy controls (mean age; 38.4 ± 9.4 years) were included. Although femoral cartilage thicknesses were found to be lower for all measurements in the amputees, the difference reached significance only in the MFC (p= 0.031). In the patient group, cartilage thickness values did not correlate with age, duration of amputation, daily walking time, stump length or Houghton score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distal femoral cartilage thickness seems to be decreased medially on the non-amputee sides of the transfemoral amputees when compared with the healthy subjects. Further studies concerning the follow-up designs, functional parameters and osteoarthritis scales are awaited.
authors.affiliation: Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Şule Şahin
authors.initials: ŞŞ
authors.lastname: Onat
authors.affiliation: Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fevziye Ünsal
authors.initials: FÜ
authors.lastname: Malas
authors.affiliation: Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gökhan Tuna
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Öztürk
authors.affiliation: Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Timur
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ekiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pamukkale University Medical School, Denizli, Turkey.
authors.forename: Nuray
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akkaya
authors.affiliation: Ankara Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sibel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Özbudak Demir
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000674:Amputees; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
keywords: Femoral cartilage; medial femoral condyle; transfemoral amputation; ultrasound