A combination of biochemical and MRI markers will allow improved measurement of osteoarthritis (OA) progression. The biomarkers, described in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research and Therapy, will be useful for the design and interpretation of trials of new disease modifying drugs.
Erik Dam, from Nordic Bioscience, Denmark, worked with a team of researchers to develop and evaluate the markers. He said, "Presently, there is no disease-modifying OA drug with a consistent, documented effect despite several clinical attempts in late stage phases. We believe that effective therapies could be demonstrated, if tools were available that allow identification of rapid progressors for inclusion in trials. With this in mind, we investigated whether combinations of biochemical and MRI-based biomarkers might improve diagnosis and prognosis of knee osteoarthritis".