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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Oct 29.
Published in final edited form as: Methods Mol Biol. 2015;1220:423–442. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-1568-2_26

Table 2.

Histological scoring of arthritis severity

Score Inflammation Bone erosion Cartilage damage
0 Normal Normal Normal
1 Minimal infiltration of inflammatory cells and/or mild edema Small areas of resorption, not readily apparent on low magnification, in trabecular or cortical bone. Synovial adherence to margins of cartilage in <3 sites
2 Mild infiltration More numerous areas of resorption, not readily apparent on low magnification, in trabecular or cortical bone. Synovial adherence to margins of cartilage in 3 or more sites
3 Moderate infiltration Obvious resorption of trabecular and cortical bone, without full thickness defects in the cortex; loss of some trabeculae; lesions apparent on low magnification. Synovial adherence to cartilage not limited to margins but no full-thickness
4 Marked infiltration Full thickness defects in the cortical bone and marked trabecular bone loss, without distortion of the profile of the remaining cortical surface. Full-thickness injury in <3 sites
5 Severe infiltration Full thickness defects in the cortical bone and marked trabecular bone loss, with distortion of the profile of the remaining cortical surface. Full-thickness injury in 3 or more sites.

Adapted from reference (29), based on original scoring system from Pettit et al. (30).