OARSI Clinical Trials Recommendations: Knee imaging in clinical trials in osteoarthritis

Abstract

Significant advances have occurred in our understanding of the pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and some recent trials have demonstrated the potential for modification of the disease course. The purpose of this expert opinion, consensus driven exercise is to provide detail on how one might use and apply knee imaging in knee OA trials. It includes information on acquisition methods/techniques (including guidance on positioning for radiography, sequence/protocol recommendations/hardware for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)); commonly encountered problems (including positioning, hardware and coil failures, sequences artifacts); quality assurance (QA)/control procedures; measurement methods; measurement performance (reliability, responsiveness, validity); recommendations for trials; and research recommendations.

Association between MRI-defined osteoarthritis, pain, function and strength 3–10 years following knee joint injury in youth sport

“…It is now well documented that radiographic OA features are preceded by cartilage loss and bone marrow lesion (BML) formation, which are better detected with MRI 9. This has led to the development of various methods to measure structural MRI OA changes 10. One semiquantitative example of this is the MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score (MOAKS) 11.…”

Image interpolation improves the zonal analysis of cartilage T2 relaxation in MRI

“…Most radiographic tools at the present time can only detect late stages of OA (7)(8)(9)(10). Being non-invasive and sensitive to the molecular motions, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has undisputable potential to become the leading diagnostic tool for cartilage health (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19).…”

Value of tomosynthesis for lesion evaluation of small joints in osteoarthritic hands using the OARSI score

“…Two independent readers (two senior radiologists with 12 and 15 years of experience) evaluated the degree of OA in the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP) II, DIP III, proximal interphalangeal joint (PIP) II, PIP III, first CMC, and scaphotrapezotrapezoidal joint (STT) using the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) score according to Hunter et al 8 . Imaging features were evaluated and classified as followed: presence of osteophytes (not presentdistinct, 0-3), joint space narrowing (normal-distinct, 0-3), subchondral sclerosis (not present-present, 0-1), lateral deformity (not present-present, 0-1), subchondral cysts (not present-present, 0-1), and central subchondral erosion as sign for erosive OA (not presentpresent, 0-1).…”