Abstract
BackgroundOsteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive degenerative condition of synovial joints in response to both internal and external factors. The relationship of OA in one joint of an extremity to another joint within the same extremity, or between extremities, has been a topic of interest in reference to the etiology and/or progression of the disease.MethodsThe prevalence of articular cartilage lesions and osteophytes, characteristic of OA, was evaluated through visual inspection and grading in 1060 adult knee/tali pairs from 545 cadaveric joint donors.ResultsJoint degeneration increased more rapidly with age for the knee joint, and significantly more knee joints displayed more severe degeneration than ankle joints from as early as the third decade. Women displayed more severe knee degeneration than did men. Severe ankle degeneration did not exist in the absence of severe knee degeneration. The effect of weight on joint degeneration was joint-specific whereby weight had a significantly greater effect on the knee. Ankle grades increasingly did not match within a donor as the grade of degeneration in either the left or the right knee increased.ConclusionsGender and body type have a greater effect on knee joint integrity as compared to the ankle, suggesting that knees are more prone to internal causative effects of degeneration. We hypothesize that the greater variability in joint health between joints within an individual as disease progresses from normal to early signs of degeneration may be a result of mismatched limb kinetics, which in turn might lead to joint disease progression.
Highlights
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive degenerative condition of synovial joints in response to both internal and external factors
Within the current study population, joint degeneration was first observed during the third decade of life, starting with a 26-year-old male with both knees displaying fibrillated cartilage
Because the pain history of the individuals within our donor population was not available, we do not use the term osteoarthritis, but rather joint degeneration [20]. This is of significance because it is well known that some individuals with joint pain show no radiographic or magnetic resonance imaging evidence of joint disease, whereas other individuals with no joint pain show imaging evidence of the pathological joint changes normally associated with OA [20,21]
Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive degenerative condition of synovial joints in response to both internal and external factors. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a generally progressive condition that involves both anabolic and catabolic mechanisms within the articular cartilage and bone of synovial joints in response to both internal and external factors. Among these factors are age [1,2] genetics [3], joint/ limb alignment [4,5,6,7,8], joint injury [9], female gender [10] and obesity [11,12]. Using mechanical axis radiographs, Tallroth et al [16] found that the greater the tilt (relative angle of the talus to the distal tibia and distal fibula) in the ankle, the more degenerative were the changes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
