Efficacy and safety of pentosan polysulfate sodium in people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis and dyslipidaemia: protocol of the MaRVeL trial

Siddiq MAB, Liu X, Fedorova T, Bracken K, Virk S, Venkatesha V, Farivar A, Oo WM, Linklater J, Hill DC, Hunter DJ · BMJ Open

A published protocol for the first academic, non-sponsor knee-OA trial of PPS, and the first to test the oral route against a modern pain endpoint: 16-week change in average knee pain on an 11-point numeric rating scale, with structural and functional secondary outcomes. Registered as ACTRN12621000654853.

Population

92 adults aged 40+ with painful Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2–3 knee OA and dyslipidaemia, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney

Intervention

Two 5-week cycles of oral PPS, beginning at baseline and week 11

Comparator

Placebo

Limitations

A protocol, not a result — no outcome data exist; single-centre and modest in size, and the dyslipidaemia entry criterion tests the vascular-mechanism hypothesis rather than knee OA in general.