New research suggests that a simple blood test could identify patients at risk of developing knee osteoarthritis (OA) up to 8 years before visible signs appear on X-rays.
The study, published in Science Advances on April 26, analyzed blood samples from women in London who were annually assessed for osteoporosis and OA.
The study, led by Dr. Virginia Byers Kraus and colleagues from Duke University School of Medicine, discovered that a few blood biomarkers could predict the onset of OA accurately, even in individuals lacking traditional risk factors such as knee injuries or surgeries.
The researchers analyzed serum samples from 100 women, with an average participant age of 54 years, who went on to develop radiographic knee OA and 100 controls who were matched by age and body mass index (BMI).
While, the researchers examined serum peptides using mass spectrometry and employed machine learning to determine which of the 115 identified peptides were most indicative of OA.
Remarkably, these biomarkers could predict OA development years before X-rays could detect changes.
However, the findings offer promising insights into early OA detection, experts like Dr. Andrew Grose from the Hospital for Special Surgery caution that X-ray evidence alone may not reflect patients' symptoms.
Further validation in larger and more diverse cohorts is needed to ensure the test's clinical relevance and effectiveness in predicting symptomatic OA.
