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Chondrocalcinosis appears to be linked to knee pain, but not synovitis
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Although chondrocalcinosis appears to be associated with increased pain, knees affected by chondrocalcinosis do not have higher synovitis scores on MRI vs. knees without chondrocalcinosis, according to results.
Researchers acquired data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative and identified patients aged 60 years or older who had knees with a Kellgren/Lawrence (K/L) grade of 0, 1 or 2 on radiographs at baseline. Investigators evaluated the correlations between baseline radiographic chondrocalcinosis and knee pain at both baseline and at 4-year follow-up. Researchers adjusted the analyses for age, sex, BMI and K/L grade. The associations between two contralateral knees in an individual subject were controlled using generalized estimating equations. Researchers also compared chondrocalcinosis-affected knees at baseline with non-chondrocalcinosis control knees matched for age, sex and K/L grade. In a subset of knees, researchers used the MRI osteoarthritis knee score to read MRIs for synovitis at baseline and 4 years.
They found that compared to knees without chondrocalcinosis (n=2,030) on baseline radiographs, knees with chondrocalcinosis (n=162) had a significantly higher incidence of frequent baseline pain as evaluated by all three pain questions after adjusting for age, sex, BMI and K/L grade. At the 4-year follow-up, knees with chondrocalcinosis had more prevalent pain vs. non-chondrocalcinosis only when comparing any knee pain in the past 30 days.
In knees with baseline chondrocalcinosis, knee pain assessed by VAS in the past 30 days was worse than in knees without chondrocalcinosis. Knees with chondrocalcinosis had higher WOMAC knee pain subscale scores vs. non-chondrocalcinosis knees at baseline and at 4 years.
No difference in changes of VAS or WOMAC scores were observed between the groups in 4 years.
esearchers found no difference in baseline Hoffa synovitis score and effusion synovitis score at 4 years between the chondrocalcinosis group and the non-chondrocalcinosis group. In an analysis comparing subjects within each K/L grade, there was still no association with synovitis.
An analysis of possible differences in synovitis scores between baseline and year 4 found no differences. A weak but statistically significant association was observed between Hoffa synovitis and effusion synovitis.
-by Jennifer Byrne
Disclosures: The researchers report private funding from the following partners: Merck Research Laboratories, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Felson and Niu’s work was supported by the NIH.
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