Welcome to this episode -our 50th episode!- of Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly. Today’s episode takes an inDEPTH look at osteoarthritis, a condition that affects more than 32 million adults in the United States. “Wear and Tear arthritis” has been in the news lately, because despite being the most frequent reason for activity limitation in adults, a new study has found that walking can ward off knee pain for people with osteoarthritis. Education, exercise, and weight loss are cornerstones of management, complemented by NSAIDs (for patients who are candidates), corticosteroid injections, and several adjunctive medications. For persons with advanced symptoms and structural damage, total joint replacement effectively relieves pain.
Later in this episode, Physician’s Weekly’s Martta Kelly interviews Dr. Ewa Roos (University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark). She recently published a paper looking at exercise therapy and how it was effective in improving muscle strength at 3- and 12-month follow-up compared to partial meniscectomy. She said these results made her, “re-think the way I think as a clinician”.
But first, I interview Dr. Philip Conaghan (Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Leeds, and NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre, Leeds, UK) to define meaningful within-patient change in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). His team analyzed data from 3 phase 3 clinical trials (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02697773, NCT02709486, NCT02528188) of tanezumab, a novel treatment intended for the relief of signs and symptoms of moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis, administered subcutaneously every 8 weeks. Patients with moderate-to-severe OA of the hip or knee completed the WOMAC and patient global assessment of OA (PGA-OA) at regular time points.
Enjoy listening!
Further reading:
Berg B, Roos EM, Kise NJ, Engebretsen L, Holm I, Risberg MA. Muscle Strength and Osteoarthritis Progression After Surgery or Exercise for Degenerative Meniscal Tears: Secondary Analyses of a Randomized Trial. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2022 Jan;74(1):70-78. doi: 10.1002/acr.24736. PMID: 34151533.
Conaghan PG, Dworkin RH, Schnitzer TJ, Berenbaum F, Bushmakin AG, Cappelleri JC, Viktrup L, Abraham L. WOMAC Meaningful Within-patient Change: Results From 3 Studies of Tanezumab in Patients With Moderate-to-severe Osteoarthritis of the Hip or Knee. J Rheumatol. 2022 Jun;49(6):615-621. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.210543. Epub 2022 Mar 1. PMID: 35232805.
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Thanks for listening!