title: Association of hand and knee osteoarthritis: evidence for a polyarticular disease subset.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between hand and knee osteoarthritis (OA) in a community based population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Radiographs of 695 participants aged > or = 40 years in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging were read for changes of OA, using Kellgren-Lawrence grade > or = 2 as the case definition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Logistic regression analyses, adjusting for age, gender and body mass index, revealed a significant association between OA in the knee and the following joint groups: distal and proximal interphalangeal (DIP, PIP) and Hand2 (OA in two or more hand joint groups) for grade 2-4 and grade 3-4 disease, and the first carpometacarpal (CMC1) joint for grade 3-4 disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an association between OA in hand sites and the knee. The strength of the associations increases with increasing disease severity. For the PIP site, there is a trend toward increasing strength of association for increasing numbers of affected joints and bilateral disease.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Office of Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, Bethesda, MD 20892-6500, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hirsch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lethbridge-Cejku
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reichle
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Plato
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tobin
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hochberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015142:Baltimore / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011859:Radiography; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors