Criteria of Altman for the Diagnosis of Idiopathic Osteoarthritis of the Knee Using Clinical and X-Ray Data

 

Patient selection:

(1) presence of knee pain

(2) absence of a condition predisposing to degenerative arthritis (see Table I, page 33)

 

Parameters:

(1) age in years

(2) duration of stiffness in the affected knee joint

(3) crepitus

(4) osteophytes on joint radiograph

 

Parameter	Finding	Points
age of the patient in years	<= 50 years	0
	> 50 years	1
duration of knee stiffness	>= 30 minutes	0
	< 30 minutes	1
crepitus	absent	0
	present	1
osteophytes on X-ray	absent	0
	present	1

 

total clinical score =

= SUM(points for the 3 clinical parameters)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum clinical score: 0

• maximum clinical score: 3

• The presence of osteophytes on X-ray and a clinical score of >= 1 can be used to identify a patient with clinical osteoarthritis.

 

Performance:

• The sensitivity for 3 of 6 criteria is 95% and the specificity is 69%.