Cross-sectional assessment of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are prevalent in India. However, there is dearth of literature among Indians studying the relationship between the two. This study was carried out to assess various cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in patients with knee OA with an objective to investigate their association, screening and management. Methods: In total, 225 patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants were diagnosed with knee OA on the basis of the Kellgren and Lawrence (K-L) classification of their radiograph. Participants were also assessed for CV risk factors (age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, smoking) with the help of the Joint British Society QRisk3 calculator (JBS3), which gave three variables: JBS3 risk score, heart age, and life expectancy. Chi Square, Fishers exact test and one-way ANOVA tests were used to compare the categorical and quantitative variables, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between CV risk factors and knee OA. Results: Patients with severe knee OA had a statistically significantly higher prevalence of CV risk factors (p<0.05). Grade 4 knee OA patients were found to have a mean JBS3 risk of 38%, heart age of 82 years and life expectancy of 77 years as compared to grade 2 patients who had a mean JBS3 risk of 11%, heart age of 63 years and life expectancy of 82 years. Conclusions: Our study concluded that there is a strong positive correlation between knee OA and CVD, with CV risk score being directly proportional to the severity of OA. JBS3 is a comprehensive risk score calculator as well as a screening tool, which produces three more comprehensive variables, namely 10-years risk of developing CVD, physiological heart age and life expectancy.