The association between statin use and the progression of knee osteoarthritis on magnetic resonance imaging. the vancouver longitudinal study of early knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

Purpose: Background: Statins are a class of cholesterol lowering medications commonly used in stroke and heart attack prevention. Recent in vitro and epidemiologic research has suggested a potential beneficial effect of statins on knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, the current literature is inconsistent with some epidemiologic studies having reported reduced progression of OA, while others have shown increased progression of OA in statin users. Previous studies relied on radiography, which is inferior to MRI in the assessment of early-stage OA, takes longer to assess progression of OA, and cannot look at individual tissues in the joint.