Association of osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus : studies of osteophyte formation and cartilage defects in diabetic and non-diabetic knee osteoarthritis

Abstract EN

Hypothesis: It is believed that there is an apparent, role of insulin as a potent growth factor with an anabolic activity on cartilage and bone in OA.

Relatively, little attention has been directed towards the association between DM and OA.

This study was designed to investigate the possible role of DM in the pathogenesis of OA, also to demonestrate the correlation between osteophyte formation and cartilage defects in diabetic and non-diabetic knee OA patients.

Methodology: The study included 50 female patients with mean age 65 ± 11 years; they were divided into two groups, each of 25 patients.

The first group (25 patients) had type II DM.

All patients of both groups had chronic knee pain with clinical evidence of knee OA.

Both groups were similar with respect to age, weight and duration of OA symptoms.

Antro-posterior, lateral and axial knee radiographs were obtained from each patient.

MRI examination was performed on the same day for both knees for all patients.

Results: Osteophyte formation was more prominent in non-diabetic patients; MR detected cartilage defects correlated strongly with osteophytosis in diabetic and non-diabetic patients.

Thus we suggested that DM might play a possible role in the pathogenesis of OA by influencing osteophytosis.