Osteoarthritis (OA) in the knee and in multiple large joints are more dominant in African-Americans than with Caucasians. However, OA in the hands are more likened to progress in Caucasians rather than African-Americans, based on a new study.For this reason, doctors find it hard to recognize when African-American patients have osteoarthritis, according to their research about how this joint condition appears in two races.
“We think of multiple OA often being hand and knee or hands and hips and knee, which is more the pattern of Caucasian women. So we could miss [cases] in African-Americans who actually have large, weight-bearing joints that are involved,” as stated by study author Amanda E. Nelson, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at the University of North Carolina Thurston Arthritis Research Center in Chapel Hill.
Osteoarthritis is truly a debilitating disease. Most patients said that their daily routines are altered by it. Considered as the final intervention in managing osteoarthritis is a hip replacement operation.Although, there have been many reports about the complications involved with the hip implants used. Just like what happen to Stryker ABG II hip implant recall, patients lamented over the pain, puffiness, and metal toxins they suffered from it.You may actually read more about this hip implant device at stryker-hip-replacement-recall.com
This study includes numerous X-rays of hands, knees, hips and spines of black and white participants ageing 45 above which are assessed by the researchers. They investigated about 2,000 patients with 16 types of hand osteoarthritis and almost 1,400 partakers with 32 combinations of multiple joints osteoarthritis.
The researchers found that African-Americans were twice as much to have knee OA than Caucasians, and 77 percent more likely to have both knee and spine OA than Caucasians.Although, it was not really established to be an extensive figure, African-Americans further had a 30 to 40 percent higher chance of acquiring osteoarthritis in the hip, or in hip, knee and back combined.
“I think it is a very interesting article and it highlights the fact that, although osteoarthritis is so common, there is still a lot we have to learn about the clinical presentation of the disease, especially in different populations,” says Carla Scanzello of the department of rheumatology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Hand OA creates a different type of disability than OA affecting large joints like knees and hips. So understanding how those patterns differ in different individuals will allow us to apply treatment modalities and support in appropriate patient populations.”
Sources:
osteoarthritis.about.com/od/osteoarthritis101/a/ethnicity.htm
news.unchealthcare.org/news/2011/october/more-african-americans-burdened-by-osteoarthritis-in-multiple-large-joints
