Pain catastrophising predicts optimal improvement in pain following genicular arterial embolisation for the treatment of mild and moderate knee osteoarthritis.

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of OA. Patients with mild-to-moderate OA, who do not respond to conservative treatment or yet warrant joint replacement, represent a significant clinical challenge. Genicular Arterial Embolisation (GAE) is a promising interventional radiological technique for OA. However, data highlight a consistent subset of patients that do not respond to GAE, despite a successful procedure. Pain Catastrophising (PC) represents a set of cognitive/affective biases to pain, linked to maladaptations in the descending pain modulatory system and has been frequently identified as a predictor of clinical outcomes. This study aimed to investigate whether baseline pain catastrophising is associated with treatment outcomes following GAE, and to explore its neural correlates using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). A prospective, longitudinal cohort design was employed for this study. Thirty patients with mild-to-moderate knee OA scheduled for GAE completed a presurgical assessment including psychometric profiling and quantitative sensory testing. A neuroimaging subset of 17 patients, who met MRI safety criteria, also completed rs-fMRI. Participants completed outcome assessments at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 12 months post-GAE. Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS) scores were analysed in relation to treatment outcomes and to whole-brain voxel-wise functional connectivity using the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as a seed region. PCS scores were included as regressors in rs-fMRI analyses. Pain Catastrophising was associated with a myriad of psychological/lifestyle baseline variables, such as depression, anxiety and poor sleep. Surprisingly, high pain catastrophisers demonstrated the best improvements, with PC scores predicting higher reductions in pain at 6-weeks (R = .18, p = .024), 3-months (R = .37, p < .001) and 1-year (R = .18, p = .027). Resting-state analyses revealed that catastrophising was associated with higher connectivity between the DLPFC and areas of the brain associated with pain processing, suggesting more frequent engagement of top-down modulatory processes. These results highlight that, interestingly, patients who catastrophise may benefit most from GAE. Potential explanations for this are discussed within. Overall, this data indicates GAE is an effective treatment for knee OA, and may be valuable at managing pain for high catastrophisers, who often fare worse in more invasive surgical procedures.