A research team from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago have identified urinary markers, which would develop osteolysis or bone destruction in the patients who have undergone total hip replacement surgeries. By collecting the 24-hour urine sample, a comparative study was conducted between the patients who had undergone hip replacements and patients who did not.

The level of markers in urine could be detected even six years before a diagnosis was made. Though a single marker shows normal accuracy, the combination of an inflammatory marker IL-6 and a bone resorption marker ?-CTX seem to be more accurate in detecting bone destruction from the patients with zero signs of bone destruction.

Dr D. Rick Sumner, the senior author of the study said, "We are hopeful that early biomarkers for implant loosening will alert surgeons to be especially vigilant in their follow-up of at-risk patients and may eventually lead to treatments delaying or avoiding the need for revision surgery.”

Dr Sumner further added, “Perhaps even more intriguing is that the two biomarkers we identified also differed before surgery among patients who eventually developed peri-implant osteolysis and those who did not, supporting the concept that other researchers have proposed of genetic risk factors for loosening."