A simple inclusion criteria combination increases the rate of cartilage loss in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Olivier Imbert; Damien Chimits; Mickaël Guedj; Freddy Lorieau; Katy Bernard; Agnès Lalande; Wolfgang Wirth; Felix Eckstein; Maria Pueyo

doi:10.1016/j.ocarto.2021.100188

A simple inclusion criteria combination increases the rate of cartilage loss in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2021 Jun 5;3(3):100188. doi: 10.1016/j.ocarto.2021.100188. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Olivier Imbert¹, Damien Chimits¹, Mickaël Guedj¹, Freddy Lorieau¹, Katy Bernard¹, Agnès Lalande¹, Wolfgang Wirth^{2

3

4}, Felix Eckstein^{2

3

4}, Maria Pueyo¹

Affiliations

¹ Institut de Recherches Internationales Servier, Suresnes, France.
² Institute of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.
³ Chondrometrics GmbH, Ainring, Germany.
⁴ Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Arthritis and Rehabilitation, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.

Abstract

Objectives: Selection of patients with KL radiographic grade 2 and 3 is widely used in clinical trials, but this approach could have some limitations. The purpose of this study performed on OsteoArthritis Initiative (OAI) data is to assess whether adding OARSI-JSN to KL grading could select a population with increased rate of cartilage loss. Indeed, KL is not compartment-specific and not uniformly graded amongst expert readers. OARSI-JSN is another established, compartment-specific grading scale that specifically captures the joint space narrowing from radiographs.

Design: 1019 knee radiographs data from the progression cohort of the OAI public database were used. Cartilage loss measured with magnetic resonance imaging was evaluated using change over 1 year from baseline in cartilage thickness in the central Medial Tibio-Femoral Compartment (cMTFC) in the KL_2-3 and KL_2-3+JSN_1-2 populations.

Results: The mean cMTFC cartilage loss over one year was -0.135 ± 0.29 mm (median = -0.095 mm) in the KL_2-3 population and -0.176 ± 0.29 mm (median = -0.140 mm) in the KL_2-3 +JSN_1-2 population.

Conclusions: OARSI-JSN appears to be an effective inclusion criterion to be considered in combination with the KL grade in future clinical trials testing the structural efficacy of DMOADs in a time window of 1-year as it contributes to identify knees in whom the disease progresses rapidly.

Keywords: Knee; Magnetic resonance imaging; Osteoarthritis; Qualitative research.