Magnusson K, Turkiewicz A, Kumm J, et al. - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features associated with having more knee pain, over six years, in knees without radiographic osteoarthritis at baseline were: meniscal extrusion, full thickness cartilage loss, and osteophytes.

• This study included 294 participants from the Osteoarthritis Initiative with baseline Kellgren/Lawrence grade of 0 in both knees, and knee MRIs done at 4 different time points over 6 years.

• If MRI features were related to knee-specific pain, as reported on the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) questionnaire, was inquired.

• Following differences in KOOS knee pain score were evident for a knee with a 1 unit higher score on MRI: meniscal extrusion –1.52; cartilage area loss –0.23; cartilage full thickness loss –1.04; osteophytes –0.32; meniscal integrity –0.28; bone marrow lesions including potential cysts –0.19; synovitis 0.23; and popliteal cysts 0.86.

• Clinical significance of these findings is unclear as no feature was related to a clinically important difference in knee pain.