The Absence of Symptom in Subjects with Advanced Knee OA

Son Kyeong Min¹, Dong-Hyun Kim², Myung Hee Cho³, Dae Gyu Jang³ and Hyun Ah Kim⁴, ¹Chunchun Sacred Heart Hosp, 153, Chunchun, South Korea, ²Deparment of Social and Preventive Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chunchon, South Korea, ³Department of Statistics, Seoul National University, seoul, South Korea, ⁴Division of Rheumatology, Hanlim University Hospital, Anyang, South Korea

Meeting: 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 29, 2015

Keywords: Knee, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis

Session Information

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Title: Osteoarthritis - Clinical Aspects Poster II: Biomarkers, Biomechanics and Health Services Research

Session Type: ACR Poster Session C

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose:

Although osteoarthritis(OA) is predominantly considered as a disease of cartilage, articular cartilage is an aneural tissue, and there is a consensus that the association between knee radiographic OA and knee pain is modest. To investigate the prevalence of asymptomatic subjects with advanced knee OA, we examined databases obtained from 2 Korean community residents.

Methods:

Subjects included were from Hallym Aging Study(HAS) or from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES, year 2010-2012). Participants in each study were asked knee-specific questions regarding the presence of knee pain. Radiographic evaluations consisted of weight-bearing anteroposterior, semi-flexed knee radiographs. Each knee was evaluated for the presence of osteophytes, joint space narrowing, subchondral sclerosis, and cysts, and was graded for overall evidence of radiographic OA using the K-L grade. Advanced knee OA was defined as K-L grade 4( large osteophytes, severe joint space narrowing, and/or bony sclerosis). Clinical factors associated with the presence of knee pain were evaluated with multivaritate logistic regression analysis.

Results:

Included were 504 subjects from HAS and 8679 from KNHANES. Advanced knee OA was identified in 47(9.3%) and 685(7.8%) in HAS and KNHANES, respectively. The mean age of these 732 subjects were 72.5 years and 16.5% were male. Two hundred twenty five subjects(30.7%) did not report any pain despite having K-L grade 4 OA. Female, non-smoker, the presence of osteoporosis, and lower education were significantly associated with knee pain. After multivariate association, female and osteoporosis was significantly associated with the presence of knee pain. Advanced OA Subjects without knee pain had functional status evaluated with WOMAC and chair stand not different from that of non-OA subjects.

Conclusion:

Our community study showed that 30% of subjects with K-L grade 4 OA was asymptomatic and had functional status similar with non-OA subjects. The guidance of therapeutic decision merely based on imaging study as well as treatment option focusing solely on cartilage engineering should be viewed with caution.

Disclosure: S. Kyeong Min, None; D. H. Kim, None; M. H. Cho, None; D. G. Jang, None; H. A. Kim, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Kyeong Min S, Kim DH, Cho MH, Jang DG, Kim HA. The Absence of Symptom in Subjects with Advanced Knee OA [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; 67 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/the-absence-of-symptom-in-subjects-with-advanced-knee-oa/. Accessed .

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