Osteoarthritis, a debilitating joint degeneration without appropriate medications appears as a difficult to treat ailment. Nevertheless, novel investigations and discoveries can help tackle this disease. Experts from the Duke University Medical Center claim that the amount of uric acid in one’s joints elevates the likelihood of severe osteoarthritis. It was suggested that uric acid is a risk factor for osteoarthritis.
During the study, 159 people diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis but without a history of gout were scrutinized. The severity of knee osteoarthritis appeared strongly linked with the amount of uric acid in their knees. Scientists mention that in a non-gout population, uric acid level particularly provides evidence of paving way to inflammatory events and joint degeneration in osteoarthritis. Since present day drugs are capable of lowering uric acid, the progression of osteoarthritis may also be slowed down.
It is assumed that uric acid is actively correlated with the severity of knee osteoporosis and also disease progression over time. The study findings are apparently beneficial in the health zone. Currently, Virginia Byers Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Duke University in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology and senior author of the study and colleagues are carrying out investigations to find out whether drugs lowering uric acid levels can also prevent the onset or progression of osteoarthritis.
The study is published online in PNAS.