Objective. To investigate the validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness of a simplified power Doppler ultrasound (PDUS) assessment of joint inflammation compared with a comprehensive 44-joint PDUS assessment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who started therapy with a biologic agent. Methods. A total of 160 patients with active RA who started a biologic agent were prospectively recruited in 18 Spanish centers. The patients underwent clinical and laboratory assessment and blinded PDUS examination at baseline and 6 months. A PDUS examination of 128 synovial sites in 44 joints was performed. US synovitis and PD signal were semiquantitatively graded from 1 to 3 in all synovial sites. US count and index for synovitis and PD signal were obtained. PDUS intraobserver and interobserver reliability were evaluated. A process of data reduction based on the frequency of involvement of synovial sites by both synovitis and PD signal was conducted. Construct and discriminant validity of a simplified PDUS assessment was investigated. Results. A PDUS simplified assessment including 24 synovial sites from 12 joints detected 100% of patients with synovitis and 91% of patients with PD signal. There was a highly significant correlation between the 44-joint count and index for synovitis and PD signal and the 12-joint count and index for synovitis and PD signal at baseline and 6 months (r ‫؍‬ 0.84 -0.90, P < 0.0005). The smallest detectable difference was lower than the mean change in simplified PDUS variables. Conclusion. A 12-joint PDUS assessment of RA joint inflammation may be a valid, feasible method for multicenter monitoring of therapeutic response to biologic agents.

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This paper reports on empirical research, the purpose of which is fourfold. Firstly, we provide data regarding the realization patterns of requests made by Canarian Spanish students, both orally and in writing, in their mother tongue, a variety of Spanish. Secondly, since these undergraduates study English as a Foreign Language, we also examine the requests they make as non-native speakers of English. Two different methods were adopted for data elicitation, namely, open tape-recorded role-plays and Discourse Completion Tests (DCTs). Thirdly, we obtained a corpus of natural data through field notes taken from an array of real interactional situations in which different people spontaneously formulated requests. Finally, we try to determine to what extent the results in each phase differ depending on the method and the language used, thus contributing to the debate on the validity of research methods.

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