Laboratory tests in preclinical diagnosis of osteoarthrosis. An analytical review

The authors of this review evaluated the current laboratory tests reflecting early (preclinical) quantitative and dynamical pathochemical manifestations of osteoarthrosis (OA). The literature analysis allowed to reveal the fact that the increase in urine concentration of Type II collagen C-terminal telopeptide (uCTX-II), the increase in serum level of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (sCOMP), as well as the increase in three IL-6, IL-1, TNF-α blood proinflammatory markers were the most informative tests for early diagnosis and evaluation of OA progressing. The authors presented the promising current developments of new diagnostic tests carrying out in the field of proteomics, genomics and metabolomics. As they noted, despite the success in search of laboratory criteria for early OA diagnosis it was evident the need to solve the following two problems for wide introducing the new laboratory tests in clinical practice: 1) identification of the genes, proteins and metabolites of high-degree association with OA; 2) development of the algorithms of clinical use and standardization of the tests already proved.