Objective To investigate the relationship between the marrow edema and general clinical index,quadriceps muscle area,and the meniscus grade of knee osteoarthritis(OA).Methods 72 patients were collected with knee OA in our hospital, underwent X-ray and routine MRI examination of knee, and the same X-ray and MRI were reviewed at 12 months later in different time point.The K-L grading, bone marrow edema score, meniscal grading and VAS score of each knee joint were evaluated.The t-test and Rank-sum test were used to compare the two groups of general data, Spearman was used to perform bivariate correlation analysis.Results The age and VAS score of bone marrow edema group at the initial follow-up were significantly lower than those without edema group(P<0.05),the degree of marrow edema was moderately correlated with age and VAS score, and was not significantly correlated with other indexes.12 months later, BMI and the area of quadriceps femoris in the group with marrow edema were different from those in the group without bone marrow edema(P<0.05), the degree of marrow edema was moderately correlated with age, quadriceps area and VAS.Conclusion The range of marrow edema was related to age, quadriceps area, BMI index and VAS score in MRI.The MRI measurement could reflect the progression of knee OA more than that of X-ray.It also revealed some factors related to the progression of knee OA.