Relationship Between Vitamins and Radiologic Stage in Knee Osteoarthritis

While in the past osteoarthritis (OA) was believed to be a degenerative disease of cartilage alone, recently, many factors such as trauma, mechanical strain, inflammation, biochemical reactions, and metabolic irregularities have been shown to be involved in its etiology. Until now there have been many studies done to investigate the relationship between serum 25-OH Vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and knee OA however the relationship between folic acid, vitamin B12 and knee OA has been rarely studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between folic acid, vitamin B12 and 25(OH)D levels and radiographic staging in patients diagnosed with primary gonarthrosis.

The files of patients who presented to Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital's outpatient clinic of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation with knee pain between June and December 2023 and were diagnosed with gonarthrosis according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria were retrospectively reviewed.

Either one way ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis H test was used to compare means determined based on the result of the Shapiro Wilk test. Bonferroni PostHoc was used to compare between groups. The statistical analysis was performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 (New York, USA) with significance set at p < 0.05.

Inclusion criteria

• Adults (Age: 50-80) with primary gonarthrosis
• Anterior-posterior and lateral knee direct digital radiography within 3 months of diagnosis
• Vitamin B12, folic acid and 25-OH Vitamin D within 1 months of diagnosis

Exclusion criteria

• History of inflammatory or rheumatologic disease
• History of lower extremity surgery
• Pregnancy
• Active malignancy
• Severe mental disability