Serum sex hormones and severity of osteoarthritis of the hand

Objective. To examine the relationship of endogenous sex hormones to the severity of radiographic hand osteoarthritis (ROA) in 229 white women, mean age 74 years. Methods. Hand ROA was graded according to the Kellgren-Lawrence scale and according to individual features of OA: osteophytes, joint space narrowing, subchondral sclerosis, lateral deformity and joint collapse. Two measures of hand ROA were considered: the worst joint score assigned to any one of 10 hand joints and the sum of the scores for the 10 joints. Results. Comparison of the age and obesity adjusted sex hormone concentrations by the worst Kellgren-Lawrence score or the worst score of the individual features of OA revealed little difference. There were no trends in the sex hormone concentrations with increasing severity of hand ROA. Conclusions. Our results do not support an association between endogenous hormone levels and severity of hand ROA.