EULAR EXCITEMENT IN BUZZING BARCELONA

EULAR 2025 took place from June 11–14 at Fira de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and represents the premier venue for rheumatology research and practice in Europe. The congress drew over 13,000 participants from more than 125 countries, including clinicians, academic and industry scientists, healthcare professionals, patient representatives, and other stakeholders.

EULAR 2023 in Milan and EULAR 2024 in Vienna—both attended by Chondrometrics—each attracted over 10,000–12,000 delegates, underscoring the event’s growing global significance.

Osteoarthritis is a widespread joint disorder typically classified under “rheumatic diseases,” and it remains a central focus of Chondrometrics’ work. Accordingly, we have actively participated in the past three EULAR meetings, presenting ongoing research on disease progression, structural pathology, and treatment efficacy, all based on quantitative imaging biomarkers.

This year, we worked with data from what we believe is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of a putative disease-modifying drug on both joint structure (cartilage thickness) and symptoms (WOMAC pain). We stratified treatment effects by demographic, clinical, and radiological variables (Figure, p. 2-13) in a session titled: Treatment options in osteoarthritis — Move it or lose it, which took place on Thursday, June 12th, from 10:30–12:00.

Oral Presentation

Structural Efficacy of Intra-Articular Sprifermin on Knee Osteoarthritis as a Function of Symptomatic and Radiographic Disease Severity: A Post-hoc Analysis from the FORWARD Phase-2 RCT

Our presentation addressed what we call the low-hanging-fruit bias: treating those in whom it appears “easiest” may not be as valuable as targeting those most in need. Our stratification results suggest that patients with structurally and symptomatically more advanced disease are those in whom cartilage modification actually translates into clinical benefit.

To improve function, would you rather inflate a semi-flat tire or one that is still nearly full? Treating cartilage early may sound appealing on paper—but may not prove as effective in clinical practice. This is particularly relevant in the regulatory environment of disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug development, where achieving clinical outcomes remains a primary objective.

Authors: Felix Eckstein, Casper Clemmensen, Wolfgang Wirth, Wendy Ma, Alyssa Collins, Chris Knight, Sandeep Basnet

Poster Presentation

Relationship of Diabetic Status with Cartilage Thickness and Composition in Participants with and without Osteoarthritis — A Matched-Pairs Design Study

We also presented a poster on Wednesday, June 11th, from 15:30–16:30. Here (Figure, p. 14), we examined the structural joint status of knees in patients with diabetes mellitus. Using data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), the analysis employed our novel AI- and deep-learning-based segmentation pipeline, enabling fully automated assessment of cartilage morphology and composition (T2).

Authors: Felix Eckstein, Annett Eitner, Wolfgang Wirth

Thanks to all authors and co-authors for their valuable contributions.