Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of the joints. Generally it manifests itself in hand, knee, hips and spine. There is not one method for the diagnosis of osteoarthritis. The doctor has to use different diagnostic measures to come to the right diagnosis.

Diagnosis of osteoarthritis is made by using,

• Medical history
• Laboratory tests
• Imaging methods
• Physical examination

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease. The patient may find that he has stiff joints in the morning or the joints are swollen and are painful. Any joint may have these symptoms but osteoarthritis affects hands, knees, spine and hip joints. The symptoms appear slowly. Sometimes the joints change the shape but they do not pain. Other times the doctor has to eliminate other diseases to interpret the symptoms of the patient.

The physician will check for the functioning of the joints himself. He will see the swelling, check redness and heat, skin rashes and other signs if any. Physical examination helps the physician to differentiate osteoarthritis from other types of arthritis. The patterns on the hands help in diagnosis of osteoarthritis. By taking medical history the doctor can rule out any other disease that is causing the symptoms.

Another diagnostic method used for diagnosis of osteoarthritis is imaging method. The doctor may advice X-ray. The X-ray will show the changes in the diseased joint. The narrowing of the joint space indicates that there is a cartilage loss. If bony spurs are seen in the X-ray that indicates the presence of osteoarthritis. One sided distribution of joint irregularities also indicates the presence of osteoarthritis.

If the physical examination and the X-ray do not indicate a clear diagnosis then the doctor may ask the patient to go in for pathological test for diagnosis of osteoarthritis. A tiny amount of fluid is taken from the joint and sent for testing in the lab. Generally fluid from osteoarthritic joint is clear. Sometimes the fluid may contain calcium pyrophosphate crystals. That can cause mild irritation and can explain the swelling of the joint.

MRI that is magnetic resonance imaging is used to determine the extent of damage done by osteoarthritis of spine. These imaging diagnostic measures can reveal damaged cartilage, bone spurs or loss of joint space due to cartilage loss.

All these diagnostic measures help the physician to diagnose osteoarthritis. To diagnose other type of arthritis the doctor may ask the patient to go for a blood and urine test. The test results are useful in ruling out some conditions such as gout, rheumatoid arthritis.