Elevated levels of serum type I collagen C-telopeptide in patients with rapidly destructive osteoarthritis of the hip.

We compared type I collagen degradation using serum cross-linking C-terminal telopeptide (ICTP) in 18 patients with rapidly destructive osteoarthrosis and in 20 patients with slowly progressive osteoarthrosis of the hip. The diagnosis was established by clinical examination and radiographic evaluation. Total hip arthroplasty was performed in all patients. Serum levels of ICTP, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin and N-terminal propeptide were studied. Patients with rapidly destructive osteoarthrosis had higher mean (SD) serum ICTP levels than patients with slowly progressive osteoarthrosis [13.2 (5.6) versus 3.7 ng/ml (1.4), p=0.001] whereas no significant difference of all other markers was seen between the groups. Elevation of ICTP levels correlated significantly with decreased joint-space width assessed by radiographs of the hip (p=0.01). Our data suggest that rapidly destructive hip osteoarthrosis is associated with elevated serum ICTP levels, reflecting increased collagen type I degradation.