Genomewide scan for hand osteoarthritis: a novel mutation in matrilin-3.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common human joint disease, characterized by loss and/or remodeling of joint synovium, cartilage, and bone. Here, we describe a genomewide linkage analysis of patients with idiopathic hand OA who were carefully phenotyped for involvement of either or both the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints and the first carpometacarpal (CMC1) joints. The best linkage peaks were on chromosomes 4q and 3p and on the short arm of chromosome 2.

The inheritance of hand osteoarthritis in Iceland.

Objective: To assess the contribution of genetics to hand osteoarthritis (HOA) and its subsets in the Icelandic population.

Methods: A list of 2,919 HOA patients, constituting 1% of the Icelandic population, was compiled through nationwide sources. This patient list was cross-referenced with a comprehensive Icelandic genealogy database, enabling the use of algorithms to assess familiality of HOA.