Intra-articular Injection Administration in UK Ex-professional Footballers During Their Playing Careers and the Association with Post-career Knee Osteoarthritis.

Background: The long-term risk from knee intra-articular (KIA) injections in professional athletes such as ex-footballers remains unknown. The use of KIA injections is controversial and remains anecdotally prolific as it is perceived as being safe/beneficial. The aim of this study was to determine the number, type and frequency KIA injections administered to retired professional footballers during their playing careers and the associations with post-career knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

Application of enhanced assimilable organic carbon method across operational drinking water systems.

Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) is known to correlate with microbial growth, which can consequently degrade drinking water quality. Despite this, there is no standardised AOC test that can be applied to drinking water distribution systems (DWDS). Herein we report the development of a quick, robust AOC that incorporates known strains Pseudomonas fluorescens strain P-17 and Spirillum strain NOX, a higher inoculum volume and enumeration using flow cytometry to generate a quicker (total test time reduced from 14 to 8 days), robust method.

Risk Factors for Knee Osteoarthritis in Retired Professional Footballers: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: To determine risk factors for 3 knee osteoarthritis (KOA) outcomes, knee pain (KP), radiographic KOA (RKOA), and total knee replacement (TKR) in professional footballers.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study involving a postal questionnaire, followed by radiographic assessment in a subcohort of responders.

Settings And Participants: Four thousand seven hundred seventy-five questionnaires were sent to retired professional footballers, who had played in the English football league, and 1207 responded.