[Clinical relevance of the early detection of arthrosis]

In the years 1989 to 1992 615 local persons underwent yearly examinations for analysis of osteoarthrosis of the hip and knee by means of comprehensive documentation of orthopaedic health history and clinical findings. Of special interest in our investigation were the Altman ACR criteria for osteoarthrosis of the hip and knee over the years. We can show, that finding the diagnosis is as accurate with the ACR criteria as well as the far more extensive Lequesne and Tegner-Lysholm score. Analysis of the investigations over the years revealed clearly different results in the frequency of osteoarthrosis. The reason is the nature of osteoarthrosis changing between silent and active phases especially during time of onset. Our investigations show, that valuable criteria exists for detection of early osteoarthrosis, however apparent are deficits for observing its course.