Osteoarthritis Research: The Cutting Edge of Science
Find out where osteoarthritis research is headed and how scientists may make life less painful in the future.
Could these be the good ol’ days of osteoarthritis? If your doctor gave you an osteoarthritis (OA) diagnosis 30 years ago, your treatment options weren’t that different from what’s available now: analgesics for pain, braces for joint support, physical therapy and corticosteroids, if necessary. But what seemed impossible 30 years ago – actually replacing damaged joints – is now not only possible, but a common practice, as researchers continue to develop lighter, more durable and more flexible materials.
Still, even the most sophisticated practices are used only after joints already are damaged. Today’s researchers are trying to stop OA before damage starts, working to improve diagnostic tools and develop treatments to forestall joint erosion. Even people whose joints are already damaged by OA can benefit from the knowledge generated by today’s OA research, much of which has been funded by the Arthritis Foundation’s research program.
Determining the Diagnosis
In medicine, diagnosis is an art. Just as two people can look at the same painting and see different interpretations, two doctors can look at the same results, interpret them differently and suggest different diagnoses. For OA, however, researchers are working on more objective diagnosis tests.
Walk tenderly into a doctor’s office as if every step might shatter your bones, and the doctor may surmise you have arthritis. Protocol requires that your doctor use history, physical examination and tests to establish a diagnosis and determine which type of arthritis you have, such as OA, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica or other arthritis-related conditions like fibromyalgia, ankylosing spondylitis or lupus. With new diagnostic tools, your doctor will still ask when your symptoms first started and if any of your relatives have been diagnosed with a form of arthritis or a related condition. He’ll want details about your medical history and your current symptoms, and he’ll need to look at and touch your joints to check for swelling, warmth, tenderness or bony growths. And he’ll probably still ask you to move your joints to assess your range of motion, posture and alignment of bones. Then your doctor will take a look inside your joints, and that’s where the diagnostic tests will really change.
Now when a doctor suspects OA, he usually orders an X-ray to help make the diagnosis. In the X-ray films, he looks for evidence of bony growths around the joint, such as bone spurs, and signs of cartilage deterioration within the joint. Still, X-rays are not an accurate way to diagnose OA, in part, because exact positioning – and repeating exact positioning for comparison – is difficult.
