ArticleOsteoarthritis and cartilage2015
Longitudinal (4 year) change of thigh muscle and adipose tissue distribution in chronically painful vs painless knees--data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
Article in Osteoarthritis and cartilage, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Fatty infiltration in the thigh muscles in knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Rheumatology international · 2019Pooled it
- U-shaped relationship between body roundness index and osteoarthritis risk among middle-aged and older Chinese adults: a cross-sectional analysis.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Article
- Clinical validation of fully automated (peri-)articular tissue analysis for assessing osteoarthritis progression: A narrative review.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2026Review
- Quantifying knee-adjacent subcutaneous fat in the entire OAI baseline dataset - Associations with cartilage MRI TOsteoarthritis and cartilage · 2025Article
- Differences in fatty infiltration in thigh muscles and physical function between people with and without knee osteoarthritis and similar body mass index: a cross-sectional study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Fully-automated segmentation of muscle and inter-/intra-muscular fat from magnetic resonance images of calves and thighs: an open-source workflow in Python.Skeletal muscle · 2024Article
- The effects of alpha-lipoic acid transdermal patch for local subcutaneous fat reduction: A randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial in overweight volunteers.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2024Article
- Thigh muscle composition changes in knee osteoarthritis patients during weight loss: Sex-specific analysis using data from osteoarthritis initiative.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2024Article
- Infrapatellar fat pad size and subcutaneous fat in knee osteoarthritis radiographic progression: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
- Fibro-adipogenic progenitors in physiological adipogenesis and intermuscular adipose tissue remodeling.Molecular aspects of medicine · 2024Review
- How Do Muscle Function and Quality Affect the Progression of KOA? A Narrative Review.Orthopaedic surgery · 2024Review
- Higher knee flexion moment during walking is associated with a lower risk of knee pain developing among the elderly after 24 months.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2023Article
- Levothyroxine use and longitudinal changes in thigh muscles in at-risk participants for knee osteoarthritis: preliminary analysis from Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort.Arthritis research & therapy · 2023Article
- Role of Thigh Muscle Changes in Knee Osteoarthritis Outcomes: Osteoarthritis Initiative Data.Radiology · 2022Article
- Joint-adjacent Adipose Tissue by MRI is Associated With Prevalence and Progression of Knee Degenerative Changes: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2021Article
- Clinical evaluation of fully automated thigh muscle and adipose tissue segmentation using a U-Net deep learning architecture in context of osteoarthritic knee pain.Magma (New York, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Course and predictors of upper leg muscle strength over 48 months in subjects with knee osteoarthritis: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2020Article
- Reduction in Thigh Muscle Strength Occurs Concurrently but Does Not Seem to Precede Incident Knee Pain in Women: Data From the Osteoarthritis Initiative Cohort.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation · 2020Article
- Characteristics of individual thigh muscles including cross-sectional area and adipose tissue content measured by magnetic resonance imaging in knee osteoarthritis: a cross-sectional study.Rheumatology international · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate 4-year longitudinal change in thigh muscle and adipose tissue content in chronically painful vs painless knees.
methodsKnees from Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) participants with non-acceptable symptom status (numerical rating scale (NRS) ≥4) and frequent pain (≥6 months at baseline, year 2 and year 4 follow-up) were studied. These were matched with painless controls (bilateral NRS pain intensity ≤1 and ≤infrequent pain at all 3 timepoints). 4-year longitudinal changes in thigh muscle anatomical cross-sectional areas (CSAs), isometric muscle strength, and in subcutaneous (SCF) and intermuscular fat (IMF) CSAs were obtained from magnetic resonance images (MRI) and were compared between groups (paired t-tests).
results43 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria of chronic pain, had complete thigh muscle MRI acquisitions and strength measurements, and a matched control. Quadriceps CSAs, but not extensor strength, showed a significant longitudinal decrease in chronically painful knees (-3.9%; 95% confidence interval [95 CI] -6.3%, -1.5%) and in painless controls (-2.4%; 95% CI -4.1%, -0.7%); the difference in change was not statistically significant (P = 0.33). There was a significant 4-year gain in SCF in painful knees (8.1%; 95% CI 3.1%, 13%) but not in controls (0.0%; 95% CI -4.4%, +4.4%) with the difference in change being significant (P = 0.03). The gain in IMF (∼5.2%) was similar between painful and painless knees.
conclusionThis is the first paper to show a significant impact of (chronic) knee pain on longitudinal change in local subcutaneous adipose tissue. The effect of pain on subcutaneous fat appeared stronger than that on intermuscular adipose tissue and on muscle status.
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Registered trials
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