Orthopedic Care and Consultation
Osteoarthritis is also called called degenerative joint disease or osteoarthroses occurs when cartilage in the joints wears down over time.
It can affect any joint in your body. But most commonly it is seen in following joints
Following are the risk factors for this disease [Read more...]
PRIMARY Or IDIOPATHIC
Peripheral joints
Spine
Subsets
Hereditary [Read more...]
A new study published in Arthritis Care & Research, December 2010 print issue reports that 
those patients with knee osteoarthritis who have pain in other joints as well are more likely to experience greater pain in the knee.
The lower back, foot, and elbow pain on the same side as the affected knee were associated with more severe knee pain.
The researchers analyzed data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a database including 1389 individuals aged 45 to 79 years with symptomatic tibiofemoral knee OA. [Read more...]
A research conducted by New York University have developed a method to use MRI to examine sodium ions in cartilage and view the development of osteoarthritis in knee joints.
This may provide a noninvasive method to diagnose osteoarthritis in its very early stages. It would also help to calculate measures of cartilage assessments.
The measurement reveal the location of glycosaminoglycans in cartilage tissues. Glycosaminoglycans serve as the building blocks of cartilage apart from other functions in the human body. [Read more...]
A study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases has suggested that people with varus knee alignment have an increased risk for the development of osteoarthritis of the knee.
The aim of this study was to test whether alignment influences the risk for the development of new OA and to determine whether varus and valgus alignment cause the condition to progress in existing osteoarthritis.
Varus and valgus alignment increase, respectively, medial and lateral tibiofemoral load, the authors observed.
The study included 2713 volunteers aged 50 to 79 years. All had arthritis or were at increased risk for the development of the condition because they were overweight, had knee surgery, or had a previous knee injury.
The study carried full-limb x-rays from the hip to the knee to the ankle and knee x-rays at the beginning entry and at 30 months. [Read more...]
Cartilage is the layer covering a joint. Its main function is to produce smooth articulations among the joint surfaces. Type of cartilage in synovial joint is hyaline cartilage. Hyaline cartilage is a hard, translucent material rich in Type II collagen and proteoglycan.
To reduce the friction, the cartilage is lubricated by various mechanisms.
Synovial joints serve as mechanical bearings with low coefficients of friction. Their three major sources of lubrication are:
Hydrodynamic lubrication
Loading of the articular cartilage causes compression that forces water out of the cartilage. This fluid forms an aqueous layer that separates and protects the opposing surfaces.
Boundary layer lubrication
A small glycoprotein called lubricin, which is produced by synovial lining cells, binds to articular cartilage where it retains a protective layer of water molecules.
Hyaluronic acid
It i s produced by synovial lining cells and lubricates the contact surface between synovium and cartilage. [Read more...]
Anakinra is an interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor antagonist and is common;y used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Anakinra blocks the biologic activity of naturally occurring IL-1 by competitively inhibiting the binding of IL-1 to the Interleukin-1 type receptor.
IL-1 is produced in response to inflammatory stimuli and mediates various physiologic responses, including inflammatory and immunologic reactions. IL-1 stimulates bone resorption and induces tissue damage like cartilage degradation as a result of loss of proteoglycans.
The anakinra molecule is a recombinant, non-glycosylated version of human IL-1 receptor antagonist prepared from cultures of genetically modified Escherichia coli using recombinant DNA technology.
The drug is used as biological response modifier. [Read more...]
A recent study published in March issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism has concluded that a single intraarticular injection of hyaluronic acid is no more effective than placebo in treating the symptoms of hip osteoarthritis.
This is in contrast to the findings by earlier researchers who suggested that one injection of HA could be an effective therapy for hip osteoarthritis.
The present study was a multicenter trial conducted on randomly assigned 85 patients of radiographically confirmed hip osteoarthritis who either received fluoroscopically guided intraarticular injection of hyaluronic acid, or placebo injection. A placebo is a substance or procedure a patient accepts as medicine or therapy, but which has no objectively verifiable therapeutic activity. Any therapeutic effect is thought to be based on the power of suggestion. [Read more...]
Surgery for osteoarthritis is only considered when non surgical measures have failed to bring relief. There are various options for surgical treatment of osteoarthritis. What should be used in a particular patient is decided depending upon patient profile, his ambulatory status and his expectations from the treatment.
[Read more...]
As we come to know more about pathophysiological processes involved inosteoarthritis and measures to check them, it is being increasingly recognized that nonpharmacologic management is as important and often more important than drug treatment.
It is a consensus now that drugs should serve an adjunctive role in the management of this disease. [Read more...]
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