- RE: RESEARCH - Smoking hastens knee cartilage loss in those with a family history of osteoarthritis

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! ;-)

I did my first session with real live smokers on Saturday and it went really

well! Finally not just a student and am a real live therapist! Still have

a lot to learn so won't be putting my books away for a while but it is so

good to be working again, I realised that I really missed it.

How are you keeping?

Hugs,

Heidi

[ ] RESEARCH - Smoking hastens knee cartilage loss in

those with a family history of osteoarthritis

Smoking hastens knee cartilage loss in those with a family history of

osteoarthritis

6/11/2007

By: Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jun 11 - Individuals with a family history of

osteoarthritis (OA) and who smoke have a greater rate of knee cartilage

loss

and knee defects than similar individuals with a family history of OA but

who do not smoke.

Dr. Changhai Ding of Menzies Research Institute in Hobart and colleagues

conducted a multicenter study of the offspring of patients with severe

primary osteoarthritis who underwent knee replacement surgery at Hobart,

Australia-area hospitals and randomly selected controls without a family

history of OA.

They identified 325 subjects, 163 with a family history of OA, with a mean

age of 45 years. Patients were assessed at baseline and again 2.3 years

later. Investigators assessed knee cartilage volume and defect scores on a

scale of 0-4 using T-weighted fat-saturated magnetic resonance imaging

(MRI). Smoking status and number of cigarettes smoked per day were

recorded.

Current smoking and smoking history of 20 pack years or more was

associated

with a significant drop in medial and lateral cartilage volume. There was

an

annual loss of 2.2% medially and 1.45% laterally in current smokers when

compared with never smokers and former smokers.

" This study is the first to demonstrate harmful effects of smoking on both

cartilage volume loss and cartilage defect development mainly in persons

with a family history of severe knee OA, " Dr. Ding's group writes in the

May

issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Last Updated: 2007-06-08 15:41:16 -0400 (Reuters Health)

http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup & Sub=ort & Pag=dis & ItemId=76207 & w

f=1936

Not an MD