Correlation between radiographic and arthroscopic findings in Asian osteoarthritic knees

Purpose. To evaluate the correlation between radiographic and arthroscopic findings for severity of knee osteoarthritis (OA) in 119 Asians. Methods. Medical records of 52 men and 67 women aged 33 to 70 (mean, 51) years who had complaints of chronic mechanical knee pain for >3 months and were arthroscopically diagnosed with articular cartilage degeneration of the knee were reviewed. The severity of knee OA was classified using the Kellgren-Lawrence (K&L) scale and the modified Outerbridge classification. The highest grade in any compartment of the knee was used to represent the severity of OA. The correlation between the radiographic and arthroscopic findings for severity of knee OA was evaluated. Results. 17 of the 119 patients with no radiographic evidence of OA (K&L grade 0) had articular cartilage degeneration arthroscopically (mean grade, 1.14). In general, higher K&L grades correlated with more severe articular cartilage degeneration. The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.32, indicating that the association between the radiographic and arthroscopic findings for severity of knee OA was weak. Conclusion. The K&L scale correlated poorly with arthroscopic findings of articular cartilage degeneration in an Asian population with knee OA.