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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Oct 20.
Published in final edited form as: Eur Radiol. 2022 Jan 19;32(6):3944–3953. doi: 10.1007/s00330-021-08471-y

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of the study population before and after propensity score matching for statin use according to baseline BML in MRI

HN+ participant with no/minimal BMLs HN+ participant with moderate/severe BMLs
Characteristic Before matching Propensity score-matched Before matching Propensity score-matched
Statin (−) Statin (+) SMD Statin (−) Statin (+) SMD Statin (−) Statin (+) SMD Statin (−) Statin (+) SMD
No. of knees 339 175 166 166 386 203 190 190
Variables in the P.S matching (Potential confounders)
Age (year) [mean (SD)] 60.99 (8.69) 63.82 (7.87) 0.342 63.66 (8.41) 63.61 (7.93) 0.006 62.91 (8.65 64.91 (7.75) 0.244 63.94 (7.54) 64.75 (7.80) 0.098
No. of women [N (%)] 239 (70.5) 109 (62.3) 0.175 110 (66.3) 104 (62.7) 0.076 251 (65.0) 125 (61.6) 0.072 120 (63.2) 118(62.1) 0.022
BMI (kg/m 2 ) [mean (SD)] 28.10 (4.69) 28.40 (3.84) 0.069 28.15 (3.94) 28.31 (3.91) 0.04 28.92 (4.46) 30.05 (4.19) 0.261 29.50 (4.67) 29.72 (3.97) 0.049
Statin CVD indications except dyslipidemia[N(%)] 76 (22.4) 52 (29.7) 0.167 48 (28.9) 50 (30.1) 0.026 119 (30.8)66 (17.1) 89 (43.8) 0.272 76 (40.0) 78 (41.1) 0.021
Alcohol use, ≥ 1/week [N(%)] 167 (49.3) 75 (42.9) 0.129 76 (45.8) 75 (45.2) 0.012 174(45.1) 83 (40.9) 0.085 78 (41.1) 81 (42.6) 0.032
Smoking, current or past [N (%)] 151 (44.5) 92 (52.6) 0.161 84 (50.6) 87 (52.4) 0.036 170 (44.0) 101 (49.8) 0.115 90 (47.4) 91 (47.9) 0.011
PASE score [mean (SD)] 166.32 (79.40) 155.45 (70.78) 0.145 156.54 (74.01) 155.16 (72.30) 0.019 164.61 (82.81) 150.55 (72.49) 0.181 152.93 (78.22) 152.84 (73.36) 0.001
Race, non-white [N (%)] 42 (12.4) 19 (10.9) 0.048 17 (10.2) 17 (10.2) 0.001 66 (17.1) 34 (16.7) 0.009 32 (16.8) 32 (16.8) 0.001
Other variables not in the P.S matching
History of knee injury, [N(%] 80 (23.6) 36 (20.6) 0.07 37 (22.3) 35 (21.1) 0.03 121 (31.3) 72 (35.5) 0.09 59 (31.1) 65 (34.2) 0.07
Statin type
Atorvastatin 79 (60.3) 73 (59.3) 82 (48.2) 77 (49.0)
Fluvastatin 2(1.5) 2(1.6) 3(1.8) 2(1.3)
Lovastatin 6 (4.6) 6(4.9) 9(5.3) 7 (4.5)
Pravastatin 9 (6.9) 8 (6.5) 14 (8.2) 14 (8.9)
Rosuvastatin 6 (4.6) 6 (4.9) 7(4.1) 6(3.8)
Simvastatin 29 (22.1) 28 (22.8) 55 (32.4) 51 (32.5)
Statin use duration, years, [mean (SD)] 0.00 (0.00) 3.92 (2.05) 2.7 0.00 (0.00) 3.90 (2.06) 2.68 0.00 (0.00) 4.23 (2.06) 2.9 0.00 (0.00) 4.18(2.08) 2.85
Number of affected subregions with BML 0.07 0.05 0.2 0.32
0 206 (60.8) 101 (57.7) 95 (57.2) 94 (56.6) 75 (19.4) 39 (19.2) 37 (19.5) 37 (19.5)
1 83 (24.5) 44 (25.1) 45 (27.1) 43 (25.9) 24 (6.2) 18 (8.9) 7 (3.7) 17 (8.9)
2 50 (14.7) 30 (17.1) 26 (15.7) 29 (17.5) 51 (13.2) 34 (16.7) 22(11.6) 34 (17.9)
3 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 99 (25.6) 55 (27.1) 56 (29.5) 51 (26.8)
4 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 64 (16.6) 29 (14.3) 32 (16.8) 25 (13.2)
≥5 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 73 (18.9) 28 (13.8) 36(18.9) 26 (13.7)
Maximum BML grade in knee 0.16 0.03 0.02 0.09
0 148 (43.7) 63 (36.0) 63 (38.0) 61 (36.7) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
1 191 (56.3) 112(64.0) 103 (62.0) 105 (63.3) 58 (15.0) 30 (14.8) 34 (17.9) 28 (14.7)
2 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 217 (56.2) 116(57.1) 107 (56.3) 109 (57.4)
3 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 111(28.8) 57 (28.1) 49 (25.8) 53 (27.9)
Baseline KL grade 0.21 0.235 0.062 0.166
Grade 0 111(32.7) 49(28.0) 53 (31.9) 45 (27.1) 54 (14.0) 28 (13.8) 22(11.6) 28 (14.7)
Grade 1 102 (30.1) 68 (38.9) 50(30.1) 64 (38.6) 92 (23.8) 50 (24.6) 43 (22.6) 48 (25.3)
Grade 2 94 (27.7) 39 (22.3) 49 (29.5) 38 (22.9) 137 (35.5) 76 (37.4) 65 (34.2) 67 (35.3)
Grade 3 32 (9.4) 19 (10.9) 14 (8.4) 19(11.4) 103 (26.7) 49(24.1) 60(31.6) 47 (24.7)

Data are presented as numbers of knees. Statin (+) and statin (−) corresponds to statin users and non-users, respectively. Knees with both ≤2 knee subregions with BMLs and maximum BML score ≤ 1 were regarded with no/minimal BML involvement, while knees either having > 2 knee subregions with BMLs or maximum BML score > 1 were considered with moderate/severe BML involvement. BMI body mass index, BML Bone marrow lesion, HN Heberden’s node, PASE physical activity scale for the elderly, SMD standardized mean difference, SD standard deviation, N number of knees

A significant difference for SMD was defined as ≥0.1

Statin CVD indications except dyslipidemia were indicated as the presence of either history of coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular accident, diabetes (any stage of diabetes vs. no medical history of diabetes), or hypertension in clinical examination systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mm Hg at OAI visit clinical examination)

Race of participants was categorized as white and non-white considering the small number of participants in each non-white race group