STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERUM CRP VALUES AND THE SEVERITY OF KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS (KOA)

Raneem Sheikh Khamis*, Kaser Aldaw and Faisal Radwan

ABSTRACT

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease that occurs primarily in the elderly and is characterized by the destruction of articular cartilage, enlargement of the bone at its edges, subchondral sclerosis, and a group of biochemical and morphological changes at the level of the synovial membrane and the joint capsule. The study aims to study the role of CRP as a prognostic indicator of the severity of the disease and study the relationship between knee Osteoarthritis and: age, gender, and body mass index. A cross-sectional study was conducted that included 103 patients with primary knee Osteoarthritis, aged between 40-80 years. A comprehensive clinical examination was performed for active and passive movements of the joints, BMI, WOMAC, VAS calculation, a simple radiograph of the knees anteroposteriorly and in the standing position, and the KL score was determined. Reactive protein -C(CRP) was performed for all patients, and values less than 5 mg/L were considered negative. The current study showed that: About 70% of the patients were older than 50 years, and the percentage of females was 76.7%. Pain was the most frequently observed clinical symptom. CRP, BMI and stage III are independent risk factors for predicting disease severity, with a positive association between CRP and WOMAC, especially pain. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of CRP levels for predicting injury severity is 0.88 within the confidence interval [0.79-0.94] with P<0.001, and the standard point is 6.9 having the best sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 94%.

Keywords: Knee Osteoarthritis, CRP, WOMAC index, KL score, VAS.