Unicompartmental versus bicompartmental joint space width measures: Which reflect whole joint structural damage better? Data from IMI-APPROACH
Authors' conclusion
Associations between whole-joint cartilage and meniscal degeneration are similar for uni- and bicompartmental JSW, with bicompartmental JSW showing stronger correlations with KL grades.
Study context
- Population
- Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) participants in the prospective, multicenter IMI-APPROACH cohort (baseline radiographs and MRIs)
- Participants
- 262 KOA participants
- Exposure
- Unicompartmental vs bicompartmental radiographic joint space width (JSW) measures, associated with MRI whole-joint cartilage and meniscal morphology
- Outcome
- Associations of radiographic JSW measures (mJSW, JSW(x), mean JSW, JLCA) with whole-joint cartilage and meniscal morphology on MRI (MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score)
- Follow-up
- Baseline
Methodological detailscross-sectional analysis of baseline data from prospective cohort, multicenter, multivariable linear regression, Spearman correlations
- Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from prospective cohort
- Multicenter
- Multivariable linear regression
- Spearman correlations
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Full-thickness cartilage loss associated with unicompartmental minimum joint space width (mJSW), 95% CI
- [−0.16;−0.02]
- Full-thickness cartilage loss associated with bicompartmental mJSW, 95% CI
- [−0.14;−0.02]
- Full-thickness cartilage loss associated with JLCA, 95% CI
- [0.04;0.22]
- Variance explained (R²), unicompartmental measures
- 32-39%
- Variance explained (R²), bicompartmental measures
- 23-45%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Correlation with KL grading, bicompartmental vs unicompartmental measuresSpearman correlations | (95% CI −0.31 to −0.02) |
- Correlation with Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) grading, bicompartmental vs unicompartmental measures: Bicompartmental measures showed stronger correlations with KL grading
Variance explained by models (R²)
- Unicompartmental measures
- 32-39%
- Bicompartmental measures
- 23-45%
Original publication
Unicompartmental versus bicompartmental joint space width measures: Which reflect whole joint structural damage better? Data from IMI-APPROACH. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. Published 28 November 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →