Thumb Proprioception in Trapeziometacarpal Osteoarthritis
Investigation of Thumb Proprioception in Trapeziometacarpal Joint Osteoarthritis
Hacettepe University
100 participants
Oct 23, 2025
OBSERVATIONAL
Conditions
Summary
This study looks at people who have osteoarthritis at the base of the thumb. It examines how well the thumb can sense its position and movement. The study has three goals: 1. To compare these measurements between people with thumb base osteoarthritis and healthy people. 2. To find out whether this ability changes from milder to more advanced levels of osteoarthritis. 3. To explore whether this ability is related to factors such as basic personal characteristics, thumb/hand muscle strength and hand use, pain and touch sensation, and emotional factors like fear of movement, anxiety, and depression. This is an observational study. No treatment is given. Participants complete thumb measurements and several tests/questionnaires.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria13
- Voluntary participation
- Radiographic Eaton-Littler stage I-IV confirmed by an orthopedic specialist
- Symptom duration ≥6 months
- Age 25-75 years
- Pain intensity ≥4/10 on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) during daily activities at assessment
- Ability to actively perform ≥40° palmar abduction
- Adequate cognitive capacity to understand and perform study procedures (for participants aged ≥65 years: Montreal Cognitive Assessment \[MoCA\] score ≥21)
- Voluntary participation
- No thumb pain
- Age 25-75 years
- No clinical signs of TMC OA
- Negative provocation tests
- Adequate cognitive capacity to understand and perform study procedures (for participants aged ≥65 years: MoCA score ≥21)
Exclusion Criteria12
- Inability to abduct the thumb beyond 40° due to severe pain/deformity (especially advanced stage III-IV)
- Acute trauma or prior surgery of the hand/wrist
- Conservative treatment for hand/thumb pain in the same extremity within the previous 6 months
- Current use of anti-inflammatory medication
- Peripheral nerve disorders affecting proprioception (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome, dorsal radial nerve irritation, cervical radiculopathy, double crush syndrome)
- Concomitant upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., trigger finger, De Quervain's disease)
- Generalized joint hypermobility (Beighton score ≥4)
- Neuromuscular, systemic peripheral neuropathic, autoimmune, rheumatic, or infectious diseases
- Active malignancy
- Neurological conditions affecting pain perception
- Visual impairment
- Pregnancy
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Interventions
This is an observational study. All participants undergo a standardized thumb proprioception assessment performed by the same assessor. Proprioception is evaluated using (1) joint position sense error at the thumb trapeziometacarpal, metacarpophalangeal, and interphalangeal joints, and (2) pinch aperture proprioception error. No therapeutic intervention is delivered; assessments are for measurement purposes only.
Locations(1)
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NCT07447323