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- DOI: 10.1002/art.30408
- PMID: 21506096
- UKPMCID: 21506096
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The associations between finger length pattern, osteoarthritis, and knee injury - data from the Framingham community cohort.
Haugen, Ida K; Niu, Jingbo; Aliabadi, Piran; Felson, David T; Englund, Martin
Arthritis and rheumatism. 2011;63(8):2284-2288.
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Full-text held externally
- DOI: 10.1002/art.30408
- PMID: 21506096
- UKPMCID: 21506096
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between index-to-ring finger ratio (2D:4D) and radiographic knee/hand osteoarthritis (OA), previous knee injury, and meniscal lesions in the general population. METHODS: We measured the length of the right 2nd and 4th phalangeal and metacarpal bones on hand radiographs from 1020 subjects (aged 51-92 years) who were randomly recruited from Framingham, Massachusetts. Subjects also had knee radiographs and knee MRI. We divided women and men into tertiles according to their phalangeal and metacarpal 2D:4D. We assessed the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for radiographic knee OA, severe symptomatic knee OA, radiographic hand OA, previous knee injury, and MRI-defined meniscal lesion using logistic regression adjusted for age and body mass index. Because hand OA may affect the phalangeal 2D:4D, we performed sensitivity analyses in subjects without joint space narrowing in the 2nd and 4th interphalangeal joints. RESULTS: We found no significant associations between 2D:4D and radiographic knee OA, severe symptomatic knee OA, or meniscal lesions. Low phalangeal 2D:4D was associated with hand OA in women (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.11-2.93), but in the sensitivity analysis the association was attenuated (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.79-2.32). Low phalangeal 2D:4D was associated with knee injury in men (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.02-3.10). We found no significant associations for metacarpal 2D:4D. CONCLUSION: Low phalangeal 2D:4D in men is associated with knee injury, but we did not find any significant association with knee OA. Low 2D:4D may be the consequence rather than the cause of hand OA in women.