MARKERS OF OSTEOARTHRITIS - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

There may be a great potential in the use of diagnostic ''markers'' of osteoarthritis in synovial fluid to diagnose the disease in an earlie r stage and perhaps assess the severity of the disease and monitor the effect of a treatment. In the present study, potential markers are ch aracterized, discussed, and grouped according to the latest knowledge on the etiology, pathogenesis, and pathology of osteoarthritis. They a re grouped according to their origin as either cartilage degradation p roducts, or related to the mechanisms of cartilage degradation, or rel ated to chrondrocytic anabolic activity during disease, or related to genetic disorders. Also potential markers that have not yet been studi ed clinically or experimentally are discussed. Examples of the progres s that has been made in human medicine approaching reliable diagnostic markers that should also be tried in veterinary medicine are describe d. (C)Copyright 1995 by The American College of Veterinary Surgeons