Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2016 Mar;24(3):458-64.
doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2015.09.013. Epub 2015 Sep 30.

Synovitis and the risk of knee osteoarthritis: the MOST Study

D T Felson  1 , J Niu  2 , T Neogi  2 , J Goggins  2 , M C Nevitt  3 , F Roemer  4 , J Torner  5 , C E Lewis  6 , A Guermazi  4 ; MOST Investigators Group
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Synovitis and the risk of knee osteoarthritis: the MOST Study

D T Felson et al. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: To identify the independent relation of synovitis with incident radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) after adjusting for other structural factors known to cause synovitis.

Design: We examined MRIs from knees that developed incident radiographic OA from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) and compared these case knees with controls that did not develop OA. We examined baseline MRIs for knees developing OA at any time up to 84 months follow-up. We scored lesions in cartilage, meniscus, bone marrow and synovitis. Synovitis scores were summed (0-9) across three regions, suprapatellar, infrapatellar and intercondylar region, each of which was scored 0-3. After bivariate analyses examining each factor's association with incidence, we carried out multivariable regression analyses adjusting for age, sex, BMI, alignment and cartilage and meniscal damage.

Results: We studied 239 case and 731 control knees. In bivariate analyses, cartilage lesions, meniscal damage, synovitis and bone marrow lesions were all risk factors for OA. After multivariable analyses, synovitis was associated with incident OA. A higher synovitis score increased the risk of incident OA (adjusted OR per unit increase 1.1; (95% CI 1.0, 1.2, P = .02)), but increased risk was associated only with synovitis scores of ≥3 (adjusted OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.2, 2.1, P = .003).

Conclusions: Synovitis, especially when there is a substantial volume within the knee, is an independent cause of OA.

Keywords: Cohort studies; Incidence; Knee osteoarthritis; Magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Examples of Synovitis Scoring From MOST MRIs
Figure 2
Figure 2. Flow Chart
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Peat G, McCarney R, Croft P. Knee pain and osteoarthritis in older adults: a review of community burden and current use of primary health care. Ann.Rheum.Dis. 2001;60:91–97. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nguyen US, Zhang Y, Zhu Y, Niu J, Zhang B, Felson DT. Increasing prevalence of knee pain and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: survey and cohort data. Ann.Intern.Med. 2011;155:725–32. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hernandez-Molina G, Neogi T, Hunter DJ, Niu J, Guermazi A, Roemer FW, et al. The association of bone attrition with knee pain and other MRI features of osteoarthritis. Ann.Rheum.Dis. 2008;67:43–47. - PubMed
    1. Sharma L, Song J, Felson DT, Cahue S, Shamiyeh E, Dunlop DD. The role of knee alignment in disease progression and functional decline in knee osteoarthritis. JAMA. 2001;286:188–95. - PubMed
    1. Felson DT, McLaughlin S, Goggins J, Lavalley MP, Gale ME, Totterman S, et al. Bone marrow edema and its relation to progression of knee osteoarthritis. Ann.Intern.Med. 2003;139:330–36. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms