A diagnostic evaluation of the severity and progression of hip osteoarthritis (OA) using biochemical markers is lacking in the current medical literature. Osteopontin (OPN) has been proved to correlate with the progression and severity of knee OA. Therefore, the examination of plasma OPN levels in patients with idiopathic hip OA and its correlation with disease severity and progression was necessary.
Our study included 21 patients displaying symptomatic severe idiopathic hip OA; the diagnosis of the disease was based on the checklist of the American College of Rheumatology and the severity was evaluated according to the K-L grading (Kellgran and Lawrence score).
14 patients showed radiological changes according K-L grade 3 (66.66%), and 7 patients showed radiological changes according K-L grade 4 (33.33%). We observed a highly statistically significant increase of plasma OPN levels in comparison with normal referenced values, the cut off value for differentiating between normal people and patients with hip OA was 193.6 ng/ml. Furthermore, the mean of plasma OPN levels in idiopathic hip osteoarthritis patients with K-L grade 4 (362.51 ± 83.31 ng/mL) was greater than those with K-L grade 3 (283.41 ± 56.31 ng/mL), the difference being statistically significant.
plasma OPN levels are increased in idiopathic hip OA and are correlated with the severity of the disease.