Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders News

CHICAGO — High effusion-synovitis volume levels and the presence of infrapatellar fat pad signal intensity alteration were predictive of advanced knee osteoarthritis up to 2 years before disease onset, according to data presented at the ACR/ARHP 2018 Annual Meeting.

CHICAGO — Denosumab was superior to risedronate for increasing spine and hip bone mineral density, with both treatments demonstrating similar safety, among patients receiving glucocorticoids, according to Kenneth Saag MD, MSc, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

More than 50% of adults aged 45 years or older with some form of arthritis are currently going untreated, despite a substantial proportion experiencing severe symptoms and poor physical function, according to data published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology.

Evidence-based physical therapy interventions for patients who undergo total knee replacement surgery are underused, and the dosage may not be adequate to achieve optimal outcomes, according to a retrospective review in Arthritis Care & Research.

Modest improvements in quadricep strength are associated with better performance in chair-stand tests among women — but not men — who are at risk for knee osteoarthritis or already have the disease, according to recent findings in Arthritis Care & Research.

The use of wearable devices that track movement is effective in significantly increasing the amount of and time spent performing moderate to vigorous physical activity, with high short-term adherence, among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Gains in ultradistal radius bone mineral density demonstrated by postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who had been treated with abaloparatide for 18 months were maintained throughout the following 24 months with open-label alendronate, according to a poster presented at the ASBMR 2018 Annual Meeting.

Positive psychological interventions were ineffective as a stand-alone treatment for pain among black and white veterans with knee osteoarthritis, according to findings published in JAMA Open Network.

Women aged at least 65 years with osteopenia were shown to be less at risk for fragility fracture when treated with zoledronate vs. placebo, according to study results reported at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Annual Meeting and published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Although it remains unclear whether statins have an impact on knee OA outcomes, patients with OA who used statins for more than 5 years, as well as those who used atorvastatin, demonstrated a significantly reduced risk for experiencing knee pain, according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.