Indices of severity and disease activity for osteoarthritis.

Several indices have recently been constructed by rheumatologists for the assessment of clinical status in osteoarthritis of the extremities. These include the algofunctional indices for the hip and knee (Lequesne), the Western Ontario and McMasters Universities (WOMAC) index (Bellamy), patients and investigator's overall opinion (results of drug trials), global evaluation of change in handicap (self-assessment), and articular index of physical examination in nature (Doyle et al). Each of the above indices have been validated by their respective authors. Presently, we propose to further validate the disease-activity indices.