20
January
2022
|
19:16 PM
America/New_York

Osteoarthritis Phenotyping Makes Progress, but Will Targeted Treatments Follow?

Medscape features a perspective by HSS rheumatologist Karmela Kim Chan, MD, about the progress of osteoarthritis (OA) phenotyping and the potential for targeted treatments.

Dr. Chan explained, “To improve outcomes in OA, we need to do a better job of defining it and understanding mechanisms behind it. Though we do not typically think of ‘phenotypes’ when we think of OA, we also instinctively know that the ‘wear-and-tear’ conception of OA is not the whole picture either, as illustrated by those pesky Heberden nodes.”

She continued, “In the past decade, more advanced imaging and lab methods, statistical tools, and machine learning have contributed to more sophisticated phenotyping attempts. This work has become so relevant and critical that in 2020, a panel of 25 osteoarthritis researchers published a framework for doing this work. Defining phenotypes and endotypes will lead to a better understanding of the natural history of the various types of OA and allow for better treatment paradigms rather than the limited and rather blunt instruments of pain management and joint replacement surgery that we currently use.”

Read the full article at Medscape.com.