title: Baseline radiographic osteoarthritis and semi-quantitatively assessed meniscal damage and extrusion and cartilage damage on MRI is related to quantitatively defined cartilage thickness loss in knee osteoarthritis: the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide a comprehensive simultaneous relation of various semiquantitative knee OA MRI features as well as the presence of baseline radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) to quantitative longitudinal cartilage loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied Multicenter OA Study (MOST) participants from a longitudinal observational study that included quantitative MRI measurement of cartilage thickness. These subjects also had Whole Organ MRI Score (WORMS) scoring of cartilage damage, bone marrow lesions (BMLs), meniscal pathology, and synovitis, as well as baseline radiographic evaluation for Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grading. Knee compartments were classified as progressors when exceeding thresholds of measurement variability in normal knees. All potential risk factors of cartilage loss were dichotomized into "present" (score ≥2 for cartilage, ≥1 for others) or "absent". Differences in baseline scores of ipsi-compartmental risk factors were compared between progressor and non-progressor knees by multivariable logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, alignment axis (degrees) and baseline KL grade. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% CIs were calculated for medial femorotibial compartment (MFTC) and lateral femorotibial compartment (LFTC) cartilage loss. Cartilage loss across both compartments was studied using Generalized Estimating Equations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  196 knees of 196 participants were included (age 59.8 ± 6.3 years [mean ± SD], BMI 29.5 ± 4.6, 62% women). For combined analyses of MFTC and LFTC, baseline factors related to cartilage loss were radiographic OA (KL grade ≥2: aOR 4.8 [2.4-9.5], cartilage damage (aOR 2.3 [1.2-4.4])), meniscal damage (aOR 3.9 [2.1-7.4]) and extrusion (aOR 2.9 [1.6-5.3]), all in the ipsilateral compartment, but not BMLs or synovitis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Baseline radiographic OA and semiquantitatively (SQ) assessed MRI-detected cartilage damage, meniscal damage and extrusion, but not BMLs or synovitis is related to quantitatively measured ipsi-compartmental cartilage thinning over 30 months.
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Imaging Center (QIC), Department of Radiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: guermazi@bu.edu.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guermazi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eckstein
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Imaging Center (QIC), Department of Radiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Bridgeport Hospital, Yale School of Medicine, Bridgeport, CT, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.affiliation: Quantitative Imaging Center (QIC), Department of Radiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Roemer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center in Rheumatology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Nevitt
authors.affiliation: Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Torner
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Felson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D011859:Radiography; D012307:Risk Factors; D013585:Synovitis / Q000473:pathology*; D000070600:Tibial Meniscus Injuries
keywords: Cartilage; Effusion; Meniscus; Quantitative; Semiquantitative; Synovitis