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  • Ultrasound-detected osteophytes predict the development of radiographic and clinical features of hand osteoarthritis in the same finger joints 5 years later

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Osteoarthritis
Original article
Ultrasound-detected osteophytes predict the development of radiographic and clinical features of hand osteoarthritis in the same finger joints 5 years later
  1. Alexander Mathiessen1,2,
  2. Barbara Slatkowsky-Christensen1,
  3. Tore K Kvien1,2,
  4. Ida K Haugen1 and
  5. Hilde Berner Hammer1
  1. 1 Department of Rheumatology, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
  2. 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alexander Mathiessen; alexander_mathiessen{at}hotmail.com

Abstract

Background Structural pathology may be present in joints without radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis (OA). Ultrasound is a sensitive tool for early detection of osteophytes. Our aim was to explore whether ultrasound-detected osteophytes (in radiographically and clinically normal finger joints) predicted the development of radiographic and clinical hand OA 5 years later.

Methods We included finger joints without radiographic OA (Kellgren-Lawrence grade (KLG)=0; n=301) or no clinical bony enlargements (n=717) at baseline and examined whether ultrasound-detected osteophytes predicted incident radiographic OA (KLG ≥1, osteophytes or joint space narrowing (JSN)) or incident clinical bony enlargement (dependent variables) in the same joints 5 years later. We applied logistic regression with generalised estimating equations adjusted for age, sex, body mass index and follow-up time.

Results Ultrasound demonstrated osteophytes in 86/301 (28.6%) joints without radiographic OA and 392/717 (54.7%) joints without clinical bony enlargement. These osteophytes were confirmed in the majority of joints where MRI assessment was available. Significant associations were found between ultrasound-detected osteophytes and development of both radiographic OA (OR=4.1, 95% CI 2.0 to 8.1) and clinical bony enlargement (OR=3.5, 95% CI 2.4 to 5.1) and also incident radiographic osteophytes (OR=4.2, 95% CI 2.1 to 8.5) and JSN (OR=5.3, 95% CI 2.1 to 13.4).

Conclusion Ultrasound-detected osteophytes predicted incident radiographic and clinical hand OA 5 years later. These results support the use of ultrasound for early detection of OA.

  • hand osteoarthritis
  • ultrasonography
  • epidemiology

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-2017-000505

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors Data collection: AM, BS-C, HBH and IKH. Study design: AM and IKH. Analyses, interpretation of data and drafting the paper: AM. Critical revision and final approval: AM, BS-C, HBH, IKH and TKK.

    • Funding ‘The Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation’ through EXTRA funds has financed the PhD position of AM.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval Regional Ethical Committee (Norway).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Data available upon written request.