Bone marrow lesions play a part in osteoarthritis pain

Bone marrow lesions (areas of bone damage) cause pain for those with osteoarthritis, a study confirms in Arthritis Research & Therapy.
Out of the 198 people involved in the study, 109 were the adult children of people who had a knee replacement while the other 89 were community-based control subjects. Knee pain and bone marrow lesion size were assessed at two and 10-year visits.
The experts involved looked at the natural history of knee bone marrow lesions and the association with knee pain along with body mass index and amount of strenuous activity.
A total of 129 people had 229 bone marrow lesions between them. After eight years, 24% of these had increased in size, 55% were stable and 21% had shrunk or disappeared. And 52% of those without bone marrow lesions at the start of the study, developed them over the 10 year period
Bone marrow lesion size resulted in an increase of pain, especially in men and those with a family history of osteoarthritis. A higher body mass index and taking strenuous activity were associated with increases in bone marrow lesions size.
A spokesperson from Arthritis Research UK comments
“These bone marrow lesions – areas of bone damage which show up on MRI as white blotches – are seen more frequently in people whose knee osteoarthritis is painful than those whose knee osteoarthritis is not painful. And the lesions get bigger when pain gets worse, suggesting that they are a cause of pain.”

To read the original research click here.