My Joint space narrowing AT age 36 was attributed to OA. I guess I must “just” have an unusually early, bad case of OA.
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That is the assumption. I’ve definitely had an inflammatory issue there. I had a rough stretch with my hips five or six years ago, when I had x rays. I’m guessing that it’s more significant now, possibly bone spurs. Apparently I’ve started making bone spurs all over now.
Sorry about that link. The correct one is:
technically put but from the study:
*the classical pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1 and TNF, that are commonly released in PsA are also involved in OA [62, 76, 77]. In addition, regulatory-type cytokines such as TGF-β play key roles in tissue repair and also facilitate pro-inflammatory reactions [104, 105]. nflammation in OA may be triggered by danger signals released on tissue damage, including hyaluronin fragments, fibronectin and necrotic fragments of tissue [106], and similar danger signals may be initiators of PsA, but this is less well defined. Therefore common triggering mechanisms at the enthesis could result in either a predominant degenerative or a predominant inflammatory phenotype or a mixture of the two
Pretty much sums it up.
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Thanks for that tntlamb. I’ve stumbled across this article before but didn’t know if it was any good so it’s particularly helpful to have your recommendation.
Not exactly easy reading! I guess there’s a reason rheumies don’t usually give us chapter & verse 
Confirms (I think) my assumption that it’s complicated!
This bit encouraged me to persevere with the article:
‘While degeneration or inflammation may be clearly discernible at the two extremes, there may be a group of patients where differentiation is impossible.’
There’s also a passing reference to the possibility of more of an overlap between the two diseases than we laypeople usually think, which is something I have heard of before.
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Show off! 
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This discussion brings to mind my last appointment with the ignorant jerk assistant doc at my current, not for long, rheumatologist. He plain and simple said he doesn’t believe I have any type of autoimmune disease or rheumatic diseases. It’s all “just” OA ! Yep exact words. I’m not sure what he’s basing this on except he said I have no plaques. That’s it.
Reading what everyone else has been told helps me understand to a point that I’m not the only one that has been told that.
The search for another rheumatologist is on big time tho.
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