Change in bone area does not correlate with cartilage loss over 12 months in individuals with knee OA: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative

Abstract

s / Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 23 (2015) A82eA416 A227 surfaces of the femorotibial joint. Correlation of bone and cartilage change within each anatomical regions was very poor. Individuals who were rapid progressors for cartilage loss were no more likely to be fast progressors for bone change than any other individual (Table 2). Conclusions: Bone area and cartilage thickness both provide responsive measures of change in knee OA. Within a one year period the spatial location of the change is different in most areas of the knee, though both measures show change in the articulating surfaces of the femorotibial joint. There is no correlation between the two measures for any of the anatomical regions, and the ‘fast progressors’ for each method are not found in the same individual more than might be expected by chance alone. The relationship of bone and cartilage changes with time is not well understood, but within the one year period typical of a clinical trial, the two tissue measurements progress independently of one another. It is important to understand whether these two tissues change as part of the same overall disease progression, or are unrelated to each other. This experiment cannot answer that question, but the independence of the 2 measures suggests that they could be combined to provide a composite measure of change in the OA knee which provides more information than using the two methods independently.