Proximal tibial osteophytes and their relationship with the height of the tibial spines of the intercondylar eminence: paleopathological study

Objective Tibial spiking (i.e., spurring of tibial spines), eburnation, and osteophytes are considered features of osteoarthritis. This investigation employed direct inspection of the medial and lateral tibial plateaus in paleopathological specimens to analyze the frequency and morphological features of osteoarthritis and to define any relationship between the size of osteophytes and that of the intercondylar tibial spines. Materials and Methods A total of 35 tibial bone specimens were evaluated for the degree of osteoarthritis and presence of eburnation. Each plateau was also divided into four quadrants and the presence and size of bone outgrowths were recorded in each quadrant. The “medial/lateral tibial intercondylar spine index” for each specimen was calculated as follows: (medial/lateral intercondylar tibial spine height)/(anteroposterior width of the superior tibial surface). The relationships between medial and lateral tibial height indexes with the degree of osteoarthritis were then tested. Results Osteophytes were observed more frequently in the anterior quadrants of both tibial plateaus than in the posterior quadrants (29 vs 16 for the medial tibial plateau [ p = 0.01] and 28 vs 20 for the lateral tibial plateau [ p = 0.04]). Eburnation was seen more frequently in the posterior regions of both tibial plateaus than in the anterior regions (17 vs 5, p