Genetic factors may influence disease trajectory in patients with rhizarthrosis, according to a recent study published by Henkel et al in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. Rhizarthrosis involves osteoarthritis of the trapeziometacarpal joint and can often lead to severe pain and loss of function. In a case-control genome-wide association study, investigators analyzed data from 208,342 patients involved in the Copenhagen Hospital Biobank pain and degenerative musculoskeletal disease study and the Danish Blood Donor Study. The investigators selected and divided the patients with rhizarthrosis into two case groups: those who underwent surgery (n = 1,083) and those who did not undergo surgery (n = 1,888). They then conducted two genome-wide association studies to compare genetic variants among patients with surgically and nonsurgically treated rhizarthrosis and 205,371 controls. The investigators discovered seven genetic variants potentially associated with surgically treated disease and three variants potentially associated with nonsurgically treated disease. They reported that none of the variants reached nominal significance in the opposite patient group and that all of them were notably different between each group—with a false discovery rate of 5%. The investigators underscored that there may be genetic differences between patients with rhizarthrosis who receive surgical or nonsurgical treatment for the disease. In a companion press release on the findings, corresponding author for the study Cecilie Henkel, MD, PhD, of Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, commented: “While no solid conclusions about the effect of specific genetic variants on the need for surgical treatment should be made at this stage, our study marks a stride toward integrating genetic insights into the clinical management of osteoarthritis.”
February 22, 2024