OSTEOARTHRITIS

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and is a leading cause of pain and disability worldwide. Several biological structural trace elements involved in various vital metabolic processes relating to health and diseases include calcium and zinc has been proved to have a role in decreasing inflammatory pain, joint stiffness and other disabling symptoms associated with osteoarthritis. The purpose of the present study was to estimate the serum levels of some essential trace element such as calcium,copper, zinc, selenium and vitamin D and K in elderly patients with OA. A total of 300 patients comprising of one hundred and fifty OA subjects and 150 non osteoarthritis subjects were recruited for this study. Atomic absorption spectroscopy were used to measure the serum concentrations of Ca, Cu, Zn, Se, after it has been properly digested with its specific solution while Vitamin D and K was measured using HPLC and spectrophotometer respectively after treating with its specific solution and the results were compared with those of healthy controls. The socio-demographics characteristic of osteoarthritis and non-osteoarthritis subjects depicts no significant difference when compared with measured values across all age group. Majority of the subjects with osteoarthritis were female than male with a percentage difference of 60.7% and 39.3% respectively. The measured mineral concentration (calcium, copper and zinc) of osteoarthritis were significantly lower (p<0.001) than non-osteoarthritis subject between the distributions (p<001). However, zinc was not significant (P = 0.121). The results showed that 92/150(61.3%) of subjects with osteoarthritis had calcium level below the reference range,113/150(75.3%) of copper, 30/150(20.0%) of zinc and 25/150(16.7%) of selenium were below normal reference range. Similarly, among non- osteoarthritis subjects tested the results showed that 40/150(26.7%) of the subjects had calcium
level below the reference range, 69/150(46.0%) of copper, 20/150(13.3%) of zinc and 8/150(5.3%) of selenium were below normal reference range. The levels of vitamins D and K between osteoarthritis and non-osteoarthritis control groups showed that about 19.3% of the cases with osteoarthritis had a low level of Vitamin K compared to only 9.3% of the apparently healthy controls. This difference was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.013). Also, 30.7% and 5.3% of osteoarthritis and non-osteoarthritis subjects respectively had low level of vitamin D (P < 0.001). Osteoarthritis is not age dependent, the proportion of subjects within age group of 61-70 years had the highest percentage of osteoarthritis (56.0%). While the subjects within age group 70-80 years old had the lowest 5.3% of osteoarthritis. Means of all parameters compared were all found to be significantly different at 0.05 level except age which shows a very high significant difference (P > 0.116) between osteoarthritis and non-osteoarthritis subjects. It is therefore recommended that all patients with osteoarthritis should routine undergo structural trace element measurement.