Exploratory clustering analysis of osteoarthritis biochemical markers

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative, musculoskeletal disease for which we currently do not have a definitive cure. It progressively affects the body joints in terms of functional damage, pain, and structural modification. In the long term, it strongly affect the patients' quality of life and their working abilities. OA affects 8 million people and directly costs NHS around 10 billion pounds every year. OA does not hit all patients in the same way, its progression varies. The ongoing APPROACH project aims to investigate which biomarkers pathways lead to the worsening of the disease over time, and to predict the future progression as early as possible.

In this talk, I will describe one of our latest efforts within the APPROACH project, regarding the baseline biochemical markers clustering. The goal of this analysis is to identify groups of patients that share similar biochemical conditions. It is a preliminary step for a more complex, time-related analysis. I will talk about the challenges that we faced, give an overview of the preliminary results, and provide some hints about their clinical relevance.