In osteoarthritis (OA) of the patellofemoral joint (PFJ), whether MRI-detected damage in different PFJ regions leads to similar pain is unknown. In an analysis of 1,137 knees from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study, the prevalence of knee pain was 1.9-fold higher in those with full-thickness cartilage loss isolated to the lateral PFJ (95% CI 1.3–2.8) or in both lateral and medial (mixed) PFJ regions (95% CI 1.9–2.9) than in those without full-thickness cartilage loss, whereas isolated medial PFJ cartilage loss was not associated with an increased risk of knee pain (OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.6–1.1). However, a similar analysis of 934 knees from the Framingham Osteoarthritis Study did not confirm these results, as only mixed PFJ lesions were associated with knee pain when compared with no PFJ cartilage loss.
References
Stefanik, J. J. et al. The relation of MRI-detected structural damage in the medial and lateral patellofemoral joint to knee pain: the Multicenter and Framingham Osteoarthritis Studies. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 10.1016/j.joca.2014.12.023
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Structural damage associated with knee pain in OA. Nat Rev Rheumatol 11, 126 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2015.6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2015.6
