Clinically important changes in individual and composite measures of rheumatoid arthritis activity: thresholds applicable in clinical trials.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Thresholds of minimal clinically important improvement (MCII) are needed to plan and interpret clinical trials. We estimated MCIIs for the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) activity measures of patient global assessment, pain score, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ), Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS28), Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI), and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI).

Methods

In this prospective longitudinal study, we studied 250 patients who had active RA. Disease activity measures were collected before and either 1 month (for patients treated with prednisone) or 4 months (for patients treated with disease modifying medications or biologics) after treatment escalation. Patient judgments of improvement in arthritis status were related

SUBMITTER: Ward MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4216638 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature