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Balancing Joint Inflammation to Reduce Secondary Damage
Balancing Joint Inflammation to Reduce Secondary Damage
Osteoarthritis (OA) occurs in two forms. Primary OA is generally considered to be a non-inflammatory condition and happens due to general degeneration of the knee. The secondary forms can be due to trauma, congenital abnormalities and inflammation as in the rheumatic conditions. Recently however it has been discovered that inflammation does occur in the knee of primary OA patients and this even spills over into the systemic circulation. While unfortunate this discovery does open the possibilities of new therapeutic interventions in osteoarthritis by changing the balance of the inflammatory and growth substances (cytokines) in the joint. In particular therefore one can reduce secondary joint damage while promoting growth. Autologous Protein Solution is extracted from the patients own blood and is a very safe alternative in the treatment of patients with non-inflammatory osteoarthritis.
Frequently Asked Questions: nStride APS
Frequently Asked Questions: nStride APS
What is nStride Autologous Protein Solution (APS)? nStride APS is a non-surgical biologic therapy for knee osteoarthritis. A sample of your own blood is processed to create a concentrated solution of anti-inflammatory proteins. When injected into the knee, nStride blocks the cytokines—the specific proteins responsible for cartilage breakdown and joint pain.
How does nStride differ from standard PRP injections? While standard PRP is utilized for general healing, nStride APS is engineered specifically to treat the inflammation associated with osteoarthritis. It contains significantly higher concentrations of anti-inflammatory proteins (IL-1ra) and anabolic growth factors. This specific formulation is designed to provide clinical pain relief for 12 months or more with a single injection.
Who is a candidate for nStride treatment? The clinical indications for nStride include patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. It is typically utilized for those who have not achieved results from physical therapy or standard injections, but who are not yet ready for—or intend to delay—total knee replacement surgery.
Figure 1. Recent advances have proven that osteoarthritis actually has a state of inflammation that perpetuates the damage even if the original injury is no longer present.
Figure 2. By reducing the inflammation and promoting growth the joint is pushed towards the recovery phase.
Figure 3. Early animal studies were able to prove that APS was actually able to cause regeneration of cartilage in the knee.
Figure 4. Initial human trials showed promising improvement in pain up to 3 years from injection.
Figure 5. Not to be confused with PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma), APS represents the extraction of anti-inflammatory cytokine rich fluid from the blood and is in fact the opposite in effect to PRP which is effectively pro-inflammatory.
Figure 6. The procedure of APS injection is fairly straight forward. We house the processing equipment on-site and this minimises any delay in providing for the needs of our patients. An initial period of pain is to be expected and this gradually improves over the ensuing 6 weeks.
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