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Despite the increasingly recognized impact of hand osteoarthritis, clinical trials of therapeutics for this disease are lacking. In this context, the authors of this Viewpoint article highlight the limitations of current outcome measures for hand osteoarthritis, and argue that improvements to these measures are needed, as well as the development of new tools.
In this Viewpoint, Professors Pelletier and Martel-Pelletier discuss some of the various imaging techniques that are used in clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs. They promote the use of MRI in this setting, as this technique can provide reliable and sensitive information regarding the effects of drugs on cartilage loss.