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Osteoarthritis
Original article
Bakers' cyst and tibiofemoral abnormalities are more distinctive MRI features of symptomatic osteoarthritis than patellofemoral abnormalities
  1. A W Visser1,
  2. B Mertens2,
  3. M Reijnierse3,
  4. J L Bloem3,
  5. R de Mutsert4,
  6. S le Cessie2,4,
  7. F R Rosendaal4,5 and
  8. M Kloppenburg1,4
  9. for the NEO Study Group
  1. 1Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Medical Statistics and Bio-informatics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  3. 3Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  4. 4Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  5. 5Department of Thrombosis and Homeostasis, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr A W Visser; a.w.visser{at}lumc.nl

Abstract

Objective To investigate which structural MR abnormalities discriminate symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA), taking co-occurrence of abnormalities in all compartments into account.

Methods The Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO) study is a population-based cohort aged 45–65 years. In 1285 participants (median age 56 years, 55% women, median body mass index (BMI) 30 kg/m2), MRI of the right knee were obtained. Structural abnormalities (osteophytes, cartilage loss, bone marrow lesions (BMLs), subchondral cysts, meniscal abnormalities, effusion, Baker's cyst) at 9 patellofemoral and tibiofemoral locations were scored following the knee OA scoring system. Symptomatic OA in the imaged knee was defined following the American College of Rheumatology criteria. Logistic ridge regression analyses were used to investigate which structural abnormalities discriminate best between individuals with and without symptomatic OA, crude and adjusted for age, sex and BMI.

Results Symptomatic knee OA was present in 177 individuals. Structural MR abnormalities were highly frequent both in individuals with OA and in those without. Baker's cysts showed the highest adjusted regression coefficient (0.293) for presence of symptomatic OA, followed by osteophytes and BMLs in the medial tibiofemoral compartment (0.185–0.279), osteophytes in the medial trochlear facet (0.262) and effusion (0.197).

Conclusions Baker's cysts discriminate best between individuals with and without symptomatic knee OA. Structural MR abnormalities, especially in the medial side of the tibiofemoral joint and effusion, add further in discriminating symptomatic OA. Baker's cysts may present as a target for treatment.

  • Epidemiology
  • Knee Osteoarthritis
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2015-000234

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