Validity of a two-component imaging-derived disease activity score for improved assessment of synovitis in early rheumatoid arthritis.

ABSTRACT: Imaging of joint inflammation provides a standard against which to derive an updated DAS for RA. Our objectives were to develop and validate a DAS based on reweighting the DAS28 components to maximize association with US-assessed synovitis. Early RA patients from two observational cohorts (n = 434 and n = 117) and a clinical trial (n = 59) were assessed at intervals up to 104 weeks from baseline; all US scans were within 1 week of clinical exam. There were 899, 163 and 183 visits in each cohort. Associations of combined US grey scale and power Doppler scores (GSPD) with 28 tender joint count and 28 swollen joint count (SJC28), CRP, ESR and general health visual analogue scale were examined in linear mixed model regressions. Cross-validation evaluated model predictive ability. Coefficients

SUBMITTER: Hensor EMA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6649844 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature