Knee pain may not be only the result of arthritis, but also contributes to your progress. Finding and the early elimination of the causes for the knee pain are, therefore, important to slow the progression of knee osteoarthritis.
Scientists from the Monash University in Melbourne observed in individuals with knee pain, which lasted for about a year, are at a higher risk for cartilage loss. This was not only in constant pain, but also when they occurred in stages. People with and without knee osteoarthritis who complained at the beginning of the study on knee pain, had lost a year later, on average, more cartilage, and also the new onset or progression of knee osteoarthritis was observed more frequently than study participants without knee pain.
"The data suggest that knee pain is just the consequence of a structural deterioration of the arthrosis, but also contributes to your progress,” says lead author Yuanyuan Wang. "The elimination of the factors that cause the knee pain, it could be a strategy for slowing the progression of the disease."
The researchers had analyzed data from 2.249 persons with and 2.120 people without osteoarthritis of the knee. To begin with, and after a year, the study asked participants about their knee pain. The cartilage volume was determined at the beginning and four years later, by x-ray and MRI scans.
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