Mária Stančíková, Jozef Rovenský, Roman Stančík
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease characterized by damage of cartilage, changes in the subchondral bone, variable degrees of synovitis, and thickening of the joint capsule. It primarily involves the knee, hip, spine, small joints of the hand and ankle. It is strongly associated with increasing age, and affects approximately twice as many females as males. Diagnosis of OA is based on the clinical and radiographic characteristics. However, cartilage degradation appears much earlier as it is visible on a radiograph. There is a great effort to develop more sensitive biomarkers which may be useful for the early identification of patients with osteoarthritis, monitoring disease progression and for assessing the response to treatment. This review summarizes the data on the investigation of biomarkers in OA that are recently reported and their application and limitation in the management of OA.