Anterior meniscus extrusion is associated with anterior tibial osteophyte width in knee osteoarthritis - The Bunkyo Health Study

Arepati Adili; Haruka Kaneko; Takako Aoki; Lizu Liu; Yoshifumi Negishi; Jun Tomura; Suguru Wakana; Masahiro Momoeda; Hitoshi Arita; Shinnosuke Hada; Jun Shiozawa; Mitsuaki Kubota; Yuki Someya; Yoshifumi Tamura; Shigeki Aoki; Hirotaka Watada; Ryuzo Kawamori; Takako Negishi-Koga; Yasunori Okada; Muneaki Ishijima

doi:10.1016/j.ocarto.2023.100364

Anterior meniscus extrusion is associated with anterior tibial osteophyte width in knee osteoarthritis - The Bunkyo Health Study

Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2023 Apr 20;5(3):100364. doi: 10.1016/j.ocarto.2023.100364. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Arepati Adili^{1

2

3}, Haruka Kaneko^{1

2}, Takako Aoki^{1

2}, Lizu Liu^{1

2}, Yoshifumi Negishi¹, Jun Tomura^{1

2}, Suguru Wakana^{1

2}, Masahiro Momoeda¹, Hitoshi Arita¹, Shinnosuke Hada¹, Jun Shiozawa^{1

4}, Mitsuaki Kubota^{1

2

5}, Yuki Someya^{3

6}, Yoshifumi Tamura^{3

6}, Shigeki Aoki^{3

7}, Hirotaka Watada^{3

6}, Ryuzo Kawamori^{3

6}, Takako Negishi-Koga^{2

5}, Yasunori Okada^{2

4}, Muneaki Ishijima^{1

2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedics, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Medicine for Orthopaedics and Motor Organ, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Sportology Center, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Pathophysiology for Locomotive Diseases, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Department of Community Medicine and Research for Bone and Joint Diseases, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
⁶ Department of Metabolism and Endocrinology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Background: In knee osteoarthritis (OA), medial meniscus extrudes both medially and anteriorly. We reported that full-length width of medial tibial osteophyte, which comprises cartilage and bone parts, is directly associated with medial meniscus extrusion in early-stage knee OA and hypothesized that anterior tibial osteophyte (ATO) is also associated with anterior meniscus extrusion (AME). Thus, we aimed to examine their prevalence and relationship.

Methods: Elderly subjects (638 females and 507 males; average 72.9 years old) in the Bunkyo Health Study cohort were enrolled. MRI-detected OA changes were evaluated according to the Whole Organ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Score. ATO was evaluated using the method which can assess both cartilage and bone parts of osteophyte by pseudo-coloring images of proton density-weighted fat-suppressed MRI.

Results: Most subjects showed the Kellgren-Lawrence grade 1/2 of the medial knee OA (88.1%), AME (94.3%, 3.7 ± 2.2 mm), and ATO (99.6%, 4.2 ± 1.5 mm). Among the OA changes, AME was most closely associated with full-length width of ATO (multivariable β = 0.877, p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for determining the presence of AME as evaluated by ATO width was 0.75 (95% confidence interval 0.60-0.84, p < 0.001). The odds ratio for the presence of AME as evaluated by ATO width at 2.9 mm was 7.16 (4.23-12.15, p < 0.001, age, gender, BMI, and K-L adjusted).

Conclusions: AME and ATO were inevitably observed in the elderly subjects and AME was closely associated with full-length width of ATO. Our study provides the first evidence on the close relationship between AME and ATO in knee OA.

Keywords: And magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); Anterior meniscus extrusion (AME); Anterior tibial osteophyte (ATO); Medial meniscus extrusion (MME); Osteoarthritis.