Bone densitometry scans provide useful information that can be used to classify radiographic hip osteoarthritis more objectively than does currently used methods, UK researchers believe.
Based on detecting osteophytes using high-resolution dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), the novel grading system they have developed showed an exponential relationship with worsening clinical outcomes such as hip pain, hospital-diagnosed OA, and total hip replacement (THR).
"Given the low radiation doses involved in DEXA, this could open up opportunities for ascertaining OA in larger population-based cohorts than those available for x-rays," Ben G. Faber, MBBS, BSc, reported at the annual meeting of the British Society for Rheumatology during the best oral abstracts session.
This not only supports further research into OA but also means that it might be possible to use DEXA scans to help screen for hip OA and assess the risk for hip replacement in the future, added Faber, a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and rheumatology registrar for the North Bristol NHS Trust in England.
Session chair Tonia Vincent, MBBS, PhD, FRCPa consultant rheumatologist and director of the Centre for Osteoarthritis Pathogenesis at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at the University of Oxford (England), found the relationship between the DEXA findings and Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grade and clinical outcomes to be "really striking."
