Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about osteoarthritis.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash oa

or in the rheumatology section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Osteoarthritis is often described as wear and tear in the joints.

It occurs in the synovial joints and results from genetic factors, overuse and injury.

Osteoarthritis is thought to result from an imbalance between cartilage damage and the

chondroside response leading to structural issues in the joint.

Risk factors include obesity, age, occupation, trauma to the joint, being female and family

history.

Let's go through the commonly affected joints.

These are the hips, knees, distal, interphalangeal or DIP joints in the hands,

carpometacarpal or CMC joint at the base of the thumb,

the lumbar spine at the lower back,

and the cervical spine in the neck,

which is described as cervical spondylosis.

Next let's talk about the x-ray changes.

The four key x-ray changes in osteoarthritis can be remembered with the loss pneumonic.

L for loss of joint space, O for osteophytes, which are bone spurs,

S for subarticular sclerosis, which is increased density of the bone along the joint line,

and S for subcondral cysts, which are fluid-filled holes in the bone.

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