Dr. Paula Rackoff answers the question: 'How Is Osteoarthritis Diagnosed?'
Question: How is osteoarthritis diagnosed, and are any tests used in the process?
Answer: Osteoarthritis is really what we call a clinical diagnosis. It's really done by physical exam and by history. There are no blood tests to diagnose osteoarthritis. There are x-rays -- x-rays can confirm the diagnosis of osteoarthritis, and those can often be very helpful. But it's really by clinical exam, history, but not by blood tests.
