Cartilage lesions are not the main factor influencing pain and functional impairment in early knee osteoarthritis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Aims: To investigate the correlation between symptoms, in terms of pain and functional scores, and the extent of cartilage damage as well as other intra- and extra-articular factors in patients suffering from early knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: The subjects were selected from the Osteoarthritis Initiative database according to the following inclusion criteria: Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade 0-1-2, MRI at baseline, and availability of cartilage-denuded subchondral bone values. For each patient the following data were analyzed: demographic data, KL grade, percentage of subchondral bone denuded from cartilage, patellar quadriceps tendinitis, effusion, anserine bursa tenderness, meniscal extrusion, Hoffa body synovitis, bone marrow lesions (BML), visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) total score, and WOMAC pain subscale. Results: A total of 204 knees were included in the analysis. The multivariate analysis showed that VAS was influenced by patellar quadriceps tendinitis (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.113), anserine bursa tenderness (p = 0.009/η2 = 0.033), and percentage of cartilage-denuded subchondral bone (p = 0.032/η2 = 0.023). WOMAC was influenced by patellar quadriceps tendinitis (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.118), anserine bursa tenderness (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.060), medial meniscus extrusion (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.066), BML of the lateral compartment (p = 0.015/η2 = 0.029), patellofemoral BML (p = 0.096/η2 = 0.014), and percentage of cartilage-denuded subchondral bone (p = 0.083/η2 = 0.015). The WOMAC pain subscale was influenced by patellar quadriceps tendinitis (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.095), anserine bursa tenderness (p = 0.001/η2 = 0.055), medial meniscal extrusion (p < 0.001/η2 = 0.071), age (p = 0.032/η2 = 0.023), total BML (p = 0.001/η2 = 0.057), and percentage cartilage-denuded subchondral bone of the tibial plateau (p = 0.044/η2 = 0.020). Conclusion: The extent of cartilage damage is not the main factor influencing pain and functional impairment in early knee OA. Other intra- and extra-articular joint OA features, including extensor mechanism tendinitis, anserine bursa tenderness, meniscal extrusion, and BMLs have greater impact in driving patient symptoms.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".