Patent ID: 8889367

Claim:
A method of determining whether a subject diagnosed with osteoarthritis is at increased risk for progression to severe osteoarthritis within 12-24 months or is at increased risk for developing increased pain, said method comprising the steps of: collecting peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from the subject; (a) determining the expression levels of IL-1β and TNF-α genes in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) collected from the subject; (b) comparing the expression levels determined in step (a) with corresponding control expression levels of the same genes, and (c) (i) identifying the subject as being at increased risk for progression to severe osteoarthritis within 12-24 months or as being at increased risk for developing increased pain when the expression level(s) of one or more genes selected from IL-1β and TNF-α in step (a) is increased by at least 2 fold as compared to the corresponding control expression level(s), or (ii) identifying the subject as not being at increased risk for progression to severe osteoarthritis within 12-24 months and as not being at increased risk for developing increased pain when the expression levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in step (a) are not increased by at least 2 fold as compared to the corresponding control expression levels.