This article is part of a series on The Scientific Basis of Rheumatology: A Decade of Progress, edited by Peter Lipsky and Ravinder Maini.

Review

Developments in the clinical understanding of osteoarthritis

David T Felson

Boston University School of Medicine, Suite 200, 650 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, USA

author email corresponding author email

Arthritis Research & Therapy 2009, 11:203doi:10.1186/ar2531

Published:	30 January 2009

Abstract

With the recognition that osteoarthritis is a disease of the whole joint, attention has focused increasingly on features in the joint environment which cause ongoing joint damage and are likely sources of pain. This article reviews current ways of assessing osteoarthritis progression and what factors potentiate it, structural abnormalities that probably produce pain, new understandings of the genetics of osteoarthritis, and evaluations of new and old treatments.