Radiology Medical News about compartment-specific structural knee status;change in cartilage morphology

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Relationship of compartment-specific structural knee status at baseline with change in cartilage morphology: A prospective observational study using data from the osteoarthritis initiative
Arthritis Research & Therapy, 06/22/09

Eckstein F et al. – Data indicate that radiographic and MRI cartilage morphometry features suggestive of advanced disease appear to be associated with greater cartilage loss; may help for selecting pts with a higher likelihood of fast progression in studies that attempt to demonstrate the cartilage-preserving effect of DMARDs.

Methods

An investigation of the:
- Relationship of cartilage loss with compartment-specific baseline radiographic findings and MRI cartilage morphometry features, and
- Identify which baseline features can be used for stratification of fast progressors
An age and gender stratified subsample of OA initiative progression subcohort:
- 79 women; 77 men
- Mean age: 60.9+/-9.9 yrs
- BMI: 30.3+/-4.7 with symptomatic, radiographic OA in one knee
Baseline fixed flexion radiographs were read centrally
Adjudicated and cartilage morphometry was performed at baseline and at 1 yr f/u from coronal FLASH 3 Tesla MR images of the right knee

Results

Osteophyte status at baseline was not associated with medial cartilage loss
Knees with medial joint space narrowing showed higher rates of change than those w/o, although not significant
Higher cartilage loss both with and w/o adjusting for age, sex and BMI were displayed by:
- Knees with medial femoral subchondral bone sclerosis (radiography)
- Medial denuded subchondral bone areas (MRI), and
- Low cartilage thickness (MRI) at baseline
Participants with denuded subchondral bone showed a standardized response mean of up to -0.64 vs -0.33 for the entire subcohort

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