Hand joints without radiographic osteoarthritis maintain their joint space width over 4 years despite what's happening elsewhere in the hand.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We aimed to determine whether hand OA is characterized by systemic cartilage loss by assessing if radiographically normal joints had greater joint space width (JSW) loss over 4 years in hands with incident or prevalent OA elsewhere in the hand compared with hands without OA.

Methods

We used semi-automated software to measure JSW in the distal and proximal IP joints of 3368 participants in the Osteoarthritis Initiative who had baseline and 48-month hand radiographs. A reader scored 16 hand joints (including the thumb base) for Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade. A joint had OA if scored as KL ≥2. We identified three groups based on longitudinal hand OA status: no hand OA (KL <2 in all 16 joints) at the baseline and 48-month visits, incident hand OA (KL <2 in all 16 joint

SUBMITTER: Driban JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11215983 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature