Knee alignment doesn’t affect osteoarthritis risk
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Malalignment of the knee does not predict the development of osteoarthritis, but it may be an indication of disease severity or progression in individuals who already have the disease, according to a study conducted by Massachusetts-based researchers.
“We would posit, based on the findings in this study, that abnormalities in frontal plane knee alignment are typically a consequence and not a primary cause of osteoarthritis,” Dr. David J. Hunter from Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues write in the current issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism.
The investigators evaluated participants in the Framingham Osteoarthritis Study to determine whether malalignment was associated with the development of knee osteoarthritis within approximately 9 years.
The study included 110 osteoarthritic knees of 76 subjects, and 356 healthy knees of 178 randomly selected subjects. No cases of osteoarthritis were observed at the first examination between 1992 and 1994, but the 76 subjects had developed osteoarthritis at the follow-up exam between 2002 and 2005.
After adjusting the data for the influence of age, sex and body mass index, the researchers concluded that the anatomic alignment of the knee was not associated with osteoarthritis.
“So what should the proactive clinician who is concerned about disease prevention do in response to these findings?” Hunter asked. “Modify the modifiable; address the major factors that likely predispose to osteoarthritis, in particular obesity.”
Strategies to realign the joint to prevent osteoarthritis would seem to be “inappropriate” based on these study findings, Hunter told Reuters Health. If knee malalignment has any affect on osteoarthritis, it would be relatively small, “compared to other modifiable factors such as obesity.”
SOURCE: Arthritis and Rheumatism, April 2007.
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