Eleven key recommendations for treatment of hand OA were developed using a combination of research based evidence and expert consensus. The evidence was evaluated and the strength of recommendation was provided.
The questionnaire enables the quantification of compromised hand function, stiffness and pain in OA and RA patients, and is sensitive to therapy-related changes in RA patients.
M-SACRAH, the shortened and simplified version of the original SACRAH questionnaire, proved to be as reliable and as representative as SACRAH for hand status in individual HOA and RA patients.
Objective. To confirm the reliability and applicability of the Polymyalgia Rheumatica Disease Activity Score (PMR-AS), and to establish a threshold for remission. Methods. First, 78 patients with PMR (50 women/28 men, mean age 65.97 years) were enrolled in a cross-sectional evaluation. The PMR-AS, patient's satisfaction with disease status (PATSAT; range 1-5), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR; first hour), and a visual analog scale of patients' general health assessment (VAS patient global; range 0 -100) were recorded. Subsequently, another 39 PMR patients (24 women/15 men, mean age 68.12 years) were followed longitudinally. Relationships between the PMR-AS, PATSAT, ESR, and VAS patient global were analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's rank correlation, and kappa statistics. PMR-AS values in patients with a PATSAT score of 1 and a VAS patient global <10 formed the basis to establish a remission threshold. Results. PMR-AS values were significantly related to PATSAT (P < 0.001), VAS patient global (P < 0.001), and ESR (P < 0.01). PATSAT and VAS patient global were reasonably different ( ؍ 0.226). The median PMR-AS score in patients with PATSAT score 1 and VAS patient global <10 was 0.7 (range 0 -3.3), and the respective 75th percentile was 1.3. To enhance applicability, a range from 0 to 1.5 was proposed to define remission in PMR. The median ESR in these patients was 10 mm/hour (range 3-28), indicating external validity. Conclusion. We demonstrated the reliability, validity, and applicability of the PMR-AS in daily routine. Moreover, we proposed a remission threshold (0 -1.5) founded on patient-dependent parameters.
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