Reproducibility Of The Kellgren And Lawrence Radiographic Scale And Its Association With The Intensity Of Pain, A Look From The Physiotherapy

To evaluate the intra-evaluator reproducibility and the association of the radiographic scale with the intensity of pain at rest, on palpation, and after performing functional activities. This was across-sectional study. The population was made up of people with medical diagnoses of OA at the knee (tibiofemoral) between 40 and 75 years of age. An orthopedist evaluated the X-rays who was blind; images were evaluated in physical form, and they were randomly sorted.The pain intensity was evaluated once, by an experienced physiotherapistwhile the radiographic images were evaluated twice with a period of 8-15 days between the two evaluations. Intra-evaluator reproducibility was calculated using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient. The correlation between the grade of severity and clinical variables of pain intensity was determined using Spearman’s correlation. Intra-evaluator reproducibility was good 0.72 (0.484 -0.767) and the association of the grade on the radiography scale and the intensity of pain at rest, on palpation, and after engaging infunctional activities was very low, at 0.3, -0.07, and 0.1. The application of the radiographic scale requires previous training and its correlation with pain in any of its attributes is very low.