A detailed macroscopic scoring system for experimental post-traumatic Osteoarthritis in the equine middle carpal joint

OBJECTIVE: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a significant health issue in humans as well as horses. Experimental models of equine carpal OA have been used to investigate OA pathogenesis and potential therapeutic candidates. A 5-scale scoring system (OARSI) for macroscopic pathological cartilage changes already exists, but there is a need for a scoring system with better differentiation of severity. The aim of this study was therefore to develop and validate such a scoring system. RESULTS: New scoring system were developed for cartilage erosions (Copenhagen Equine Total Cartilage Score, CEqTCS) along with synovial membrane pathology and osteochondral fragment healing (Copenhagen Equine Carpal Osteoarthritis Score, CEqCOAS). For the CEqTCS there was excellent intraclass agreement (ICC = 0.993; CI 0.985–0.996; p = 1.08e-31) and consistency (ICC = 0.992; CI 0.985–0.996; p = 4.61e-31), as well as excellent interclass agreement (ICC = 0.974; CI 0.948–0.987, p = 2e-22) and consistency (ICC = 0.973; CI 0.946–0.987; p = 2.77e-22), while the OARSI system had moderate (κ = 0.47) and weak (κ = 0.28) inter- and intra-class agreement, respectively. The OARSI score and the CEqTCS correlated excellently, but every OARSI grade encompassed a wide range of CEqTCS grades. The new score for assessment of equine OA provides means to a better differentiation of OA changes than the existing OARSI system.