A comparative study between Plasma vitamin c level and severity of knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

Most prominent feature in osteoarthritis is the progressive destruction of articular cartilage which results in impaired joint motion, severe pain, structural and functional failure of synovial joints. A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in Burdwan Medical College, West Bengal, India on 76 postmenopausal women aged 45-70 years suffering from Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joint, which was diagnosed from symptoms, clinical examinations and radiographic findings. 150 subjects undergoing knee joint arthroscopy for chronic knee pain, meniscal tears or anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction were taken as control .plasma vitamin C was measured. The width of knee joint space was measured from the radiographic plates to assess the disease severity. Knee joint radiographs were evaluated with the Kellgren-Lawrence grading scale .Furthermore both were correlated with plasma vitamin C levels to find out possible association between the vitamin C and the disease progression. Results showed that there was a significant decrease in vitamin C levels in patients with knee joint osteoarthritis as compared to the controls. Plasma vitamin C showed negative correlation with Kellgren-Lawrence grading and positive correlation with knee joint space width. Knee joint space width and vitamin C decreased with increasing Kellgren-Lawrence grade. Keywords- vitamin C.Knee Osteoarthritis, Kellgren-Lawrence grading scale,