Osteoarthritis

SAN DIEGO — Although most osteoarthritis experts agree that diet and exercise are critical to disease management, detailed guidance on either remain lacking, according to a presenter at the 2024 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.

Decreases in body weight and HbA1c induced by GLP-1 receptor agonists and other diabetes drugs can reduce the risk for cardiometabolic complications for adults newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, researchers reported.

Oral methotrexate in combination with usual analgesics significantly reduced knee osteoarthritis pain and stiffness, and improved function, vs. placebo, according to data published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Radiofrequency ablation and transcatheter arterial embolization — both minimally invasive procedures — can improve pain and function in patients with osteoarthritis or chronic sacroiliac pain of degenerative origin, according to data.

According to published results, patients with high ankle sprains without diastasis who were treated with nonoperative management yielded acceptable long-term outcomes with low rates of subsequent ankle injuries.

New EULAR classification criteria for hand osteoarthritis — including age, morning stiffness duration, radiographic osteophytes and radiographic joint space narrowing — feature separate criteria for thumb base and interphalangeal OA.

Rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia are among the most common comorbidities identified in patients following a diagnosis of osteoarthritis, according to data presented at the EULAR 2024 Congress.

The ability to view laboratory results, track symptoms and sharing them with a provider were rated as the most useful potential app functions by patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to data.

Older adults with arthritis demonstrate poorer nutritional risk scores, and increased risks for poor nutrition, whether they have functional impairment or not, vs. those without arthritis, according to data published in Scientific Reports.