OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Accurate assessment of disease activity in patients with otorhinolaryngological manifestations of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's) (ENT/GPA) is necessary for treatment decisions and clinical trials. We have designed a disease activity score (ENT/GPA DAS) for this purpose. STUDY DESIGN A prospective cross-sectional study. METHODS GPA patients seen in a terti...

Patient assessment of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be useful in clinical practice, offering a patient-friendly, location independent, and a time-efficient and cost-efficient means of monitoring the disease. The objective of this study was to identify patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess disease activity in RA and to evaluate the measurement properties of thes...

PURPOSE To evaluate disease activity, knee function, and walking ability of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over 10 years after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). METHODS Four men and 26 women (mean age, 59.9 years) underwent 42 TKAs for RA with a mean duration of 151.3 months and were followed up for a mean of 142.3 months. Preoperatively, disease activity was assessed by C-reactive prot...

OBJECTIVE To design and validate a clinical method for scoring irreversible long term articular damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS The rheumatoid arthritis articular damage score (RAAD score) is based on examination of 35 large and small joints. Concise definitions were formulated to score each joint on a three point scale (0, no irreversible damage; 1, partially damaged; 2, severe ...

OBJECTIVE To explore whether low aerobic capacity and physical activity are associated with fatigue, when controlling for age, gender, pain and depressive symptoms in persons with rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS In 60 individuals fatigue (Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue scale; MAF), disease activity (Disease Activity Score-28; DAS 28), pain, physical and psychological status (Arthritis I...

Background: Infection is now the most common cause of morbidity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). There is lack of information regarding the specific antibody forma-tion in response to vaccines in young SLE patients. Objective: To determine the efficacy of anti-tetanus antibody response in young patients with SLE. Methods: Forty SLE pa-tients with mean age of 14.1 years (range: 7-21) and 6...

BACKGROUND Present treatment strategies for rheumatoid arthritis include use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, but a minority of patients achieve a good response. We aimed to test the hypothesis that an improved outcome can be achieved by employing a strategy of intensive outpatient management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis--for sustained, tight control of disease activity--compa...