INTRAARTICULAR OXYGEN PARTIAL-PRESSURE ME ASUREMENTS UNDER FUNCTIONALCONDITIONS

Oxygen partial pressure is directly related to the vascularisation of different tissues. Different investigations in tissue (muscle, kidney, brain, beart, bone etc.) proved this correlation. The development of a special flexible microcatheter named Licox enables us to do measurem ents of intraarticular oxygen partial pressure under physiological and pathological conditions for the first time. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of different knee joint stresses on the intr aarticular oxygen partial pressure under normal conditions and in oste oarthritis. The results showed that the different exercise patterns in fluence the intraarticular oxygen partial pressure. Patients with oste oarthritis showed a lower increase of the intraarticular oxygen partia l pressure compared to the control group. This phenomenon is directly correlated to degree velocity of the isokinetic exercises. The same fi ndings occur under ergometric conditions. This method permits function al, intraarticular in vivo measurements under different exercise patte rns. For the very first time we were able to measure the influence of the joint movement on the intraarticular process of nutrition under ph ysiological and pathological conditions.