An examination of some molecular markers in blood and urine for discriminating patients with osteoarthritis from healthy individuals

Abstract

The identification of molecular markers (MM) in blood or urine, which reflect disease changes in osteoarthritis (OA), would greatly facilitate clinical studies (Lohmander et al. 1992). One application for molecular marker measurements is for diagnostic purposes. Thus one criterion for a good molecular marker is that it should discriminate between OA patients and normal individuals. A number of candidate molecular markers have been recently identified (Poole et al. 1994). The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of those markers to discriminate OA patients and normal individuals.