Researchers analyzed the blood of 200 women with minimal knee pain and followed these women for 7 years.
The researchers found that 6 key inflammatory protein markers in the blood at baseline were able to predict with 77% accuracy which subjects would go on to develop knee OA 7 years later.
Conclusions
By the time a patient begins experiencing knee pain, the injury has been decades in the making. Preventative medicine is the best type of medicine if physical therapy rehabilitation can be initiated prior to the patient beginning to experience pain.
Reference
Kraus, V. B., Sun, S., Reed, A., Soderblom, E. J., Moseley, M. A., Zhou, K., … & Li, Y. J. (2024). An osteoarthritis pathophysiological continuum revealed by molecular biomarkers. Science Advances, 10(17), eadj6814.