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: Blocking Extracellular Galectin-3 in Patients With Osteoarthritis

Eligibility criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

          1. Knee pain in at least one knee for more than half the days in the month prior to
             screening

          2. X-rays showing evidence of knee osteoarthritis by Kellgren and Lawrence Score two or
             three, with definite osteophytes and possible or definite joint space narrowing,
             consistent with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. If both knees are affected,
             patients would choose the more severe knee for outcomes assessments.

          3. Willingness to maintain stable analgesic regimen throughout the study period

        Exclusion Criteria:

          1. Diagnosis of fibromyalgia

          2. Presence of an underlying inflammatory disease in the affected knee, including
             Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Gout, Pseudogout, or other inflammatory
             disease.

          3. Patients who cannot give consent will be excluded, as will patients who cannot speak,
             read and understand English, as we will not have translated documents, consent forms,
             and surveys for them.

          4. While this supplement is considered very safe and low risk, patients with underlying
             significant cytopenia (white blood cell count less than 4.0, hemoglobin less than 10,
             or platelets less than 100), or with impaired renal function (glomerular filtration
             rate less than 60) or elevated liver enzymes will be excluded as well.
No condition on gender to be admitted to the trial.
No healthy subjects accepted to join the trial.
Subject must be at least 40 Years old.
Subject must be at most 80 Years

Eligibility (NLI label): Entailment