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Natural history of new horizontal meniscal tears in individuals at risk for and with mild to moderate osteoarthritis: data from osteoarthritis initiative

  • Musculoskeletal
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Abstract

Objectives

To study the natural history of new horizontal meniscal tears and their association with progression of cartilage degeneration in individuals at risk for or with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis over 4 years.

Methods

Individuals who developed a new meniscal tear in the right knee over 2 years were selected from the Osteoarthritis Initiative 3T MRI studies. Knee structural changes were analyzed at the time of tear appearance (baseline), and after 4 years using a modified Whole-Organ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Score (WORMS). Meniscal tears were classified as either horizontal tears or non-horizontal tears. Individuals without a meniscal tear were 1:3 frequency matched according to BMI, gender, race, and age and served as the control group. Linear regression analysis was used to compare cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in cartilage WORMS scores.

Results

Forty-one subjects developed horizontal tears, including one indiviudal who developed a tear in both menisci, and 34 developed non-horizonal tears. We found that (29/41 (70.7%)) of horizontal and (20/34 (58.8%)) of non-horizonatal tears were stable during follow-up (p = 0.281). Although knees with an incident tear had higher than controls WORMS MAX total knee scores at baseline (coef. = 0.47, p = 0.044, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.93), there were no significant differences between the horizontal subgroup and knees without tears in overall cartilage scores at baseline and in progression over 4 years of follow-up.

Conclusions

New horizontal meniscal tears tended to be stable over 4 years and presented no significant differences in progression of cartilage degeneration when compared with knees without tears.

Key Points

• Most of horizonal meniscal tears were stable over 4 years.

• There were no statistically significant differences in overall progression of cartilage degenerative changes between knees with horizonal meniscal tears and control knees without tears

• Horizontal tears most often occurred at the posterior horn of the medial meniscus and at the body of the lateral meniscus.

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Abbreviations

DES:

Dual-echo steady state

FSE:

Fast spin echo

KOA:

Knee osteoarthritis

OAI:

Osteoarthritis Initiative

WORMS:

Whole-Organ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Score

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Funding

This study was funded by NIH R01-AR064771. The OAI is a public-private partnership comprised of five contracts (N01-AR-2-2258; N01-AR-2-2259; N01-AR-2-2260; N01-AR- 2-2261; N01-AR-2-2262) funded by the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services and conducted by the OAI Study Investigators. Private funding partners include Merck Research Laboratories; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline; and Pfizer, Inc. Private sector funding for the OAI is managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, 185 Berry Street, Lobby 6, Suite 350, San Francisco, CA, 94107, USA

      Magdalena Posadzy, Gabby B. Joseph & Thomas M. Link

    2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

      Charles E. McCulloch, Michael C. Nevitt & John A. Lynch

    3. Department of Rheumatology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

      Nancy E. Lane

    Authors
    1. Magdalena Posadzy
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    2. Gabby B. Joseph
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    4. Michael C. Nevitt
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    Correspondence to Magdalena Posadzy.

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    Guarantor

    The scientific guarantor of this publication is Thomas M. Link.

    Conflict of interest

    The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

    Statistics and biometry

    Two of the authors has significant statistical expertise.

    Informed consent

    Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects (patients) in this study.

    Ethical approval

    Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

    Study subjects or cohorts overlap

    Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) database, which is available for public access at http://www.oai.ucsf.edu/. This specific study design of horizontal tear cohort from OAI has not been used in previous publications.

    Methodology

    • Prospectively collected database with retrospective analysis of meniscal tears

    • Longitudinal case-control study

    • Multicenter study

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    Posadzy, M., Joseph, G.B., McCulloch, C.E. et al. Natural history of new horizontal meniscal tears in individuals at risk for and with mild to moderate osteoarthritis: data from osteoarthritis initiative. Eur Radiol 30, 5971–5980 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-020-06960-0

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