Friday, July 2, 2010

Radiology #4 Osteoarthritis

As I'm stuck in town for the holiday three day weekend so I can study for my upcoming diagnostic imaging III midterm, I decided to post about a topic that I'm going to be tested over. Let's first start off talking about arthritis. Everyone has seen the tylenol commercials for "joint pain" with the geriatric patients walking around holding their backs, necks, hand, etc anything to make the public sympathetic to a condition that they are already forming. Arthritis is defined as the inflammation of one or more joints which results in pain, stiffness and limited movement. There are over 100 different types of arthritis but today we will be focusing on osteoarthritis (OA) or as it's also known as degenerative joint disease. OA is the most common joint disorder, and it's not surprising because most injury sites, such as the fractures previously blogged about, will eventually turn into OA because they weren't properly rehabbed, patients didn't comply with doctor's orders, or simply from overuse. OA occurs when the cartilage lining the joints wears down, causing more stress on the bones in the joint. It's radiographically found as joint space narrowing with an increase in the cortical margins of the bones also known as subchondral sclerosis. Note the difference between the normal (top) knee radiograph and the one demonstrating OA (bottom). Medical treatment includes pain relievers and physical therapy. Chiropractic treatment includes adjusting to restore motion into the joint that has lost it's motion, physical therapy to rehab the surrounding musculature and ligaments and nutritional counseling, where applicable.

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