Editorial: Bone Reading to Predict the Future

Human skeletal remains may provide information about health status and injuries from hundreds of thousands of years ago. However, the bones in living individuals have the potential to tell us something about future health as well. In the current issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology, Kraus et al report data of prediction of osteoarthritis (OA) progression using tibial subchondral trabecular bone texture (TBT) from plain knee radiographs (1). The ability of medial TBT was assessed to predict pain progression (an increase in WOMAC score), radiographic OA progression (a loss in joint space width [JSW]), and OA status (a combination of pain and radiographic OA progression), over 24-48 months. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.