Diagnostic property of direct referral from general practitioners to contrast-enhanced thoracoabdominal CT in patients with serious but non-specific symptoms or signs of cancer: a retrospective cohort study on cancer prevalence after 12 months.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the diagnostic properties of thoracoabdominal contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT), when general practitioners (GPs) managed referral to ceCT through the non-specific symptoms or signs of cancer-cancer patient pathway (NSSC-CPP). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study including patients from a part of Denmark. SETTING: Department of Internal Medicine at a university hospital. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 529 patients underwent ceCT. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Our primary objective was to estimate the negative and positive likelihood ratios for being diagnosed with cancer within 1 year after ceCT. Our secondary outcomes were prevalence and final diagnoses of malignancy (including temporal trends since implementation of NSSC-CPP in 2012), the prevalence of revision of CT scans and referral patterns based on ceCT results. RESULTS: In total, 529 subjects underwent ceCT and malignancy was identified in 104 (19.7%) patients; 101 (97.1%) during initial workup and 3 patients during the subsequent 12 months follow-up.Eleven patients had a false-negative ceCT, and revision classified the ceCT as 'probable/possible malignancy' in eight (73%) patients. The negative predictive value was 98% and positive predictive value 63%. Negative and positive likelihood ratios for malignancy was 0.1 and 7.9, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that ceCT as part of GP-coordinated workup has a low negative likelihood ratio for identifying malignancy; this is important since identifying patients for further workup is vital.

The alignment of the knee joint in relationship to age and osteoarthritis: the Copenhagen Osteoarthritis Study.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to describe the changes in the axis of the knee joint in both radiologically osteoarthritic and non-osteoarthritic knees, on the basis of angles measurable in standardized clinical short knee radiographs, in a cross sectional study of an epidemiological cohort. DESIGN: From the third inclusion of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, 4,151 subjects were selected for standardized radiography of the knees. After censuring the inclusion, the resulting cohort was comprised of 3,488 individuals. Images were analyzed for radiological knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) and the anatomical femorotibial axis of the knee joint was measured. RESULTS: The prevalence of knee joint OA in males was 27.9% and 27.5%, for the left and right knees respectively. In females this was 32.8% and 36.4%. The mean knee joint angles were 4.11° in males; and 5.45° in females. A difference of 1.3° was found between the genders. In non-osteoarthritic knees the increase in valgus orientation in relationship to increasing age was found to be 0.03° and 0.04° per year, respectively, for males and females. Likewise, Kellgren and Lawrence found that OA was seen to influence a shift towards varus of 0.55°-0.76° per level of OA. CONCLUSION: Stratification in accordance with morphological severity of OA documented a clear tendency for the axis of the diseased knees to depart from the mean, primarily in the direction of varus. In knees exhibiting no signs of radiographic osteoarthritis we found a significant relationship between increasing age and a shift in the anatomical axis in the direction of valgus.

Case definitions of knee osteoarthritis in 4,151 unselected subjects: relevance for epidemiological studies: the Copenhagen Osteoarthritis Study.

INTRODUCTION: The aims of the present study were threefold: to examine the distribution of knee joint osteoarthritis in a large, standardized radiological study; to examine the relationships between self reported knee pain and radiological OA; and to examine the natural history of radio-morphological change over age in individuals without radiological features of OA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Copenhagen Osteoarthritis Study - COS is a substudy of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, a longitudinal regional health survey. From the third inclusion of the CCHS (1992-1994) 4,151 subjects were selected for subsequent standardized radiography of the pelvis, the knees, the hands, the wrists, and the lumbar spine. Images were analyzed and knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) was classified according to the radiographic atlas of Kellgren and Lawrence. Joint space width (JSW) was measured at three sites within both the medial and the lateral compartment. RESULTS: For the entire cohort the prevalence of radiological knee joint OA of all grades was 38.7% for men and 44.2% for women. Age stratification documented increasing knee joint OA both in regard to prevalence and morphological severity. Knee pain was universally correlated to the Kellgren and Lawrence severity of OA. In a subgroup with no features of radiological OA, a significant and linear decline in JSW with increasing age was found. CONCLUSION: We found a clear relationship between self-reported knee pain and radiological osteoarthritis. Pain was proportionally related to the severity of change. We also demonstrated a significant diminishing of joint space width with increasing age in individuals without apparent radiological degeneration.