# Identifying determinants of rapid structural and/or clinical progression in knee osteoarthritis by quantitative assessment of structural features on radiographs

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · 2023 · $710,394

## Abstract

Abstract
Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a major public health problem that affects ~30 million US adults, with increased
morbidity and premature mortality. KOA has been identified as one of the biggest unmet medical needs
because there are no FDA-approved treatments available to prevent, slow or halt OA progression.
Development and evaluation of potential OA treatments has been hampered in part by KOA typically being a
slowly progressive disease, though progression is variable and some knees undergo rapid structural or clinical
progression.
Feasible high-throughput methods are needed to gain insights as to how to identify rapid progressors. We
have developed a rapid, reproducible, and responsive quantitative software tool, Quantitative Radiographic
Software Scores (QROS), to measure minimal joint space width (JSW), fixed JSW (fJSW), variance of 14
fJSW locations; degrees of knee alignment/ malalignment; and orientation and roughness of trabecular bone
texture (TBT).
The overarching goal of our research is to identify knees at high risk of rapid progression, and our core concept
is that quantitative assessment of a novel combination of baseline structural features on radiographs will
identify a group of knees with rapid structural and/or clinical progression in KOA. Our central hypothesis is that
abnormalities of structural features on knee radiographs will be determinants of varying combinations of
worsening rates of structural and/or clinical progression in KOA. Our approach takes advantage of a unique
opportunity to innovatively assess radiographic features on ~10,500 individuals by combining three of the
largest and most racially diverse longitudinal observational studies of individuals with or at risk of developing
KOA: the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project (JoCoOA), the MulticenterOsteoarthritis Study (MOST), and
the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). All three cohorts have fixed flexion, weightbearing knee radiographs that
were acquired with identical protocols over multiple visits, and comparable data on demographics, KOA risk
factors, and WOMAC pain and function.
Our specific aims are: 1). To quantitatively assess structural and clinical progression of KOA, separately and
combined; 2). To identify the structural determinants of rapid KOA progression; and 3). To determine the knee-
specific probability and time to knee replacement (KR) based on structural and clinical determinants.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10683361
- **Project number:** 5R01AR080742-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
- **Principal Investigator:** JEFFREY W DURYEA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $710,394
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-08-12 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10683361

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10683361, Identifying determinants of rapid structural and/or clinical progression in knee osteoarthritis by quantitative assessment of structural features on radiographs (5R01AR080742-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10683361. Licensed CC0.

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