Meniscus horn lengths, concavity may help predict knee osteoarthritis risk
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Key takeaways:
- Several meniscal shape features may predict an increased risk for osteoarthritis.
- Meniscus patterns aligned with patient demographics.
Several meniscus shape features, including horn lengths, root attachment angles and concavity, may indicate an increased risk for knee osteoarthritis, according to data published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
“While links between meniscus injury and knee OA are well established, the characterization of the geometric shape of the meniscus and its relationship with knee OA remains a challenging area of research,” Kenneth T. Gao, BS, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues wrote. “Exploration of meniscus geometry has uncovered aspects of the relationship between coverage, disruption of cartilage, and OA, but may be insensitive to nuanced shape features beyond the engineered constructs specified in the abovementioned studies.”
To investigate menisci and how different shapes and morphologies may relate to OA progression, Gao and colleagues analyzed data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, including imaging information from patients who either had, or were at risk for developing, knee OA. During enrollment in the Osteoarthritis Initiative, patients underwent radiography at baseline, then annually through 48 months. Patients then completed imaging every 2 years through 96 months.
Knees were assessed and assigned Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grades signifying severity of disease. A total of 9,418 individual MRIs were used to construct the baseline timepoint information. Following imaging collection, the researchers compiled data on the images and described the characteristics of the included knees.
According to the researchers, seven shape features between the medial and lateral menisci were altered between patients with and without OA. The factors that differed between groups included length-width ratios, horn lengths, root attachment angles and concavity. The researchers noted that the shape features that indicate risk were linked to “unique cartilage thickness changes.” They additionally found correlations of meniscal shapes and patient demographics, with gender being the most prevalent category.
“This data-driven method presented a general foundation of common variations of meniscus geometry, broadened the description of meniscus characteristics that are associated with the onset of OA, and also discovered novel shape features that have yet to be investigated in the context of OA risk,” Gao and colleagues wrote. “Furthermore, localized longitudinal changes in cartilage thickness were associated with each meniscus shape, contributing additional granularity to prognosis of cartilage degeneration.”
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