Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Osteoarthritis
Degenerative joint disease
HP:0002758
What it means
Degeneration (wear and tear) of articular cartilage, i.e., of the joint surface. Joint degeneration may be accompanied by osteophytes (bone overgrowth), narrowing of the joint space, regions of sclerosis at the joint surface, or joint deformity.
In everyday care
Most people with this sign do not have a rare disease — it appears in common conditions far more often. These general reference pages cover the same topic:
Rare diseases that can present with this42
Very common80–99%
11- Acromegaly
- Albers-Schönberg osteopetrosis
- Alkaptonuria
- Ankylosing vertebral hyperostosis with tylosis
- Congenital pseudoarthrosis of the clavicle
- Dermatoosteolysis, Kirghizian type
- Dysplasia epiphysealis hemimelica
- Hip dysplasia, Beukes type
- Somatomammotropinoma
- Spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, Irapa type
- Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, Kimberley type
Common30–79%
15- Aneurysm-osteoarthritis syndrome
- Autosomal dominant otospondylomegaepiphyseal dysplasia
- Cardiomyopathy-cataract-hip spine disease syndrome
- Cranio-osteoarthropathy
- Dysspondyloenchondromatosis
- Familial calcium pyrophosphate deposition
- Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Idiopathic camptocormia
- Isolated ulnar hemimelia
- Kienbock disease
- Marshall syndrome
- Mucolipidosis type III
- Pseudoachondroplasia
- Stickler syndrome
- Stickler syndrome type 1
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Tracking symptoms like this for someone? Eleplan keeps symptoms, diagnoses, medications and every specialist in one plan.
Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.