Researchers at the University of Arizona (UArizona) Arthritis Center are undertaking a study that seeks to identify determinants of rapid knee deterioration thanks to a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). C. Kent Kwoh, MD, director of the UArizona Arthritis Center and chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the UArizona College of Medicine—Tucson’s Department of Medicine, part of UArizona Health Sciences, will lead the 5-year study, using funding from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, a division of the NIH.
Researchers plan to start by describing distinctive paths of knee symptoms and structural deterioration over time in 10,000 study participants between the ages of 45 and 90. They hope to identify novel measures of knee structure on X-rays to help predict who experiences rapid knee deterioration, as well as the need for knee replacement in the future. This work has the potential to improve the way new treatments for knee osteoarthritis (OA) are evaluated by identifying patients who are most likely to benefit; improving the way knee structure is measured; and contributing to the understanding of the different types of damage that lead to debilitating knee OA.
