Table 3.
Histopathological intergroup analysis.
| Histopathological scores∗ |
N = 9 in each group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy | Placebo | NES20 | NES40 | P value† | |
| Median (Q1–Q3) | |||||
| Cartilage damage | 0 (0–0) | 2 (2–3) | 2 (1–2) | 1 (1–1) | <0.001 |
| Bone erosion | 0 (0–0) | 3 (3–3) | 1 (1–3) | 1 (1–2) | <0.001 |
| Excess tissue formation | 0 (0–0) | 2 (2–3) | 2 (2–2) | 1 (1–2) | <0.001 |
| Pannus formation | 0 (0–0) | 3 (2–3) | 1 (1–2) | 2 (1–2) | <0.001 |
| Ectopic chondrocytes | 0 (0–0) | 2 (2–3) | 1 (0–3) | 2 (2–3) | <0.001 |
| Inflammation | 0 (0–0) | 2 (2–3) | 2 (1–2) | 1 (1–1) | <0.001 |
| Synovitis grading∗∗ | 0 (0–0) | 8 (6–8) | 5 (3–6) | 4 (3–5) | <0.001 |
NES : neutral electrolyzed saline 20 (20 µl/d) or 40 (40 µl/d); Q1 and Q3: 25th and 75th percentiles. ∗Scoring system by Tseng H–W et al. (2016); †Kruskal–Wallis test; ∗∗histopathological synovitis score by Krenn et al. (2002)