Hand examination, ultrasound and its association with hand pain and function in community-based older adults
Bibliographic record
Abstract
<strong>Objective:</strong> To describe cross-sectional associations between features observed on ultrasound (US) or clinical joint examination and hand symptoms amongst community-dwelling older adults (n=519), and determine whether such associations are independent of age, sex, BMI, and other imaging features.<p></p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> Hand pain, function, and stiffness were assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Australian/Canadian hand osteoarthritis (AUSCAN) index. Standardised clinical and ultrasound examinations were performed. Grip strength was assessed using dynamometer. Data were analysed using hurdle and linear models and adjusted for demographic factors and other features.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> Abnormal findings on joint examination and visualised by ultrasound are common in older adults with and without hand pain. Greater numbers of tender joints were associated with greater pain (VAS, β=2.63 (95% CI; 1.88, 3.39)); AUSCAN pain, β=10.57 (4.00, 17.13)), poorer AUSCAN function (β=4.07 (1.28, 6.86)), and poorer grip strength (β=-0.15 psi (-0.27, -0.03)). Power Doppler imaging (PDI) synovitis was associated with greater pain (VAS β=2.61 (1.03, 4.19), AUSCAN pain (β=13.07 (3.82, 22.32)), but not function. Joint deformity was associated with poorer function (β=4.51 (1.75, 7.26)) and grip strength (β=-0.23 (-0.40, -0.05)) but not pain. Grey-scale synovitis was associated only with poorer grip strength (β=-0.22 (-0.41, -0.04)). Associations with function and grip strength were partially mediated by pain.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Joints which are tender on palpation or have US-identified PDI synovitis are potential treatment targets for hand pain. Treating tender joints and preventing hand deformity is required to improve hand function in community-dwelling older adults.</p>
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| 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) | 0.000 | 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 teacher head, 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".