Lim K K, Rogers J, Shepstone L, Dieppe P A
Department of Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol Royal Infirmary, UK.
J Rheumatol. 1995 Nov;22(11):2132-4.
To test the evolutionary hypothesis for joint failure by comparing the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) in 2 primate hands with different thumb usage.
We studied the hand skeletons of 32 humans and 32 macaques for OA. We defined OA as the presence of joint eburnation.
The prevalence of OA in the distal interphalangeal joints was 26.7 and 50% for humans and monkeys, respectively. For the thumb base it was 37.5% in humans compared with 3.3% in macaques. The relative risk of thumb base OA in macaques may be due to the rudimentary design of the thumb. This finding supports the evolutionary hypothesis for joint failure and it may be applicable to many other joint sites.
通过比较两种具有不同拇指使用方式的灵长类动物手部骨关节炎（OA）的患病率，来检验关节失效的进化假说。
我们研究了32名人类和32只猕猴的手部骨骼以检测骨关节炎。我们将骨关节炎定义为关节骨质象牙样变的存在。
人类和猴子远侧指间关节的骨关节炎患病率分别为26.7%和50%。人类拇指基部的患病率为37.5%，而猕猴为3.3%。猕猴拇指基部患骨关节炎的相对风险可能归因于拇指的原始设计。这一发现支持了关节失效的进化假说，并且可能适用于许多其他关节部位。
