Patient case (clinical description): A 66-year-old woman comes to the office due to joint pain in the hands and periodic morning stiffness that lasts less than 15 minutes.  The pain is moderately severe and worsens with daily activity. The patient used Tylenol with minimal relief.  Past medical history is notable for hypertension and hypercholesteremia.  Physical examination shows firm nodules over the distal interphalangeal joints, bilaterally. The patient has pain in her knees as well. The knees are stiff in the morning for less than 30 minutes and become worse with climbing stairs. She has some sensation of bone friction during activity. X-ray shows narrowing of the joint space, subchondral bone sclerosis and osteophyte formation along the joints.

Patient's own account: I'm a 66-year-old woman and I went to my doctor's office because of a bloody joint pain in my hands that has been lasting for a while. The pain comes and go in the morning usually. I feel like a stiffness that last less than 15 minutes. The pain is moderately severe but it gets worse when I'm using my hands. I used Tylenol which helped a little. Apart from that, I suffer from hypertension and high cholesterol. The doctor made me notice that I have bumps around both of my hand joints. I also suffer from my knees and they are also stiff in the morning for around 30 min. It's even worse when I climb up the stairs! I also feel like my bones are rubbing against each other when I'm moving. The X-ray showed that I have narrow joint space, I have sclerosis, and abnormal growths of bone along my joints.

Clinical trial: Knee Osteoarthritis Risk in Retired Professional Footballers

Eligibility criteria:
Phase I

        Inclusion Criteria:

        • All current or retired professional male footballers (Registered with the Professional
        Footballer Association (age range 40 -80)

        Phase II

        Inclusion Criteria:

          -  Professional footballers both with and without a history of knee pain knee OA or knee
             surgical history

          -  No contraindications of the affected joint such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis

          -  Willingness to participate in a clinical assessment of the knee and provision of blood
             samples.

        Phase III

        Inclusion Criteria for controls:

          -  Over the age of 40 (age range 40 - 80)

          -  Both with and without a history of knee pain over at least the last 1 year

          -  No history of significant trauma, injury or surgery to the lower limb

          -  American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification of OA based on physical
             examination and clinical presentation: Pain in the knee and three of the following;
             over the age of 50, less than 30 minutes of morning stiffness, crepitus on active
             motion, bony tenderness, bony enlargement and no palpable warmth of synovium.

        Phase I

        Exclusion Criteria:

          -  Not a registered professional footballer (current or past)

          -  Inaccurate information (discrepancy with questionnaire information compared to other
             football records. This will be verified by the co-investigator, Dr Fernandes and Mr
             Sanjay Parekh)

          -  Incomplete questionnaire or duplicate questionnaire.

        Phase II

        Exclusion Criteria:

          -  Not a registered professional footballer

          -  No written informed consent to participate

        Phase III

        Exclusion Criteria:

          -  Aged 39 and under

          -  Comorbidities such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout, osteoporosis

          -  History of injury, trauma or surgery to the lower limb.
Male
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Subject must be at least 40 Years old.
Subject must be at most 80 Years

Eligibility (NLI label): Contradiction