Is pre-assessment for anti-TNF therapy in RA necessary in the UK? Analysis of DAS28 in six centres

Abstract

The overwhelming majority of patients who fulfil eligibility criteria for anti-TNF drugs 1 month prior to baseline also fulfil the criteria at baseline. There is no significant change in the DAS28 over the month waiting to go onto anti-TNF therapy. A single assessment of the DAS28 would suffice to enable patients to go on to anti-TNF treatment.

Different Wording of the Patient Global Visual Analogue Scale (PG‐VAS) Affects Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients’ Scoring and the Overall Disease Activity Score (DAS28): A Cross‐Sectional Study

“…Also, the interpretation of the significance of the limits of agreement on the Bland–Altman plots is clinical rather than 2statistical, due to the distribution of the data collected. However, the range of DAS28 scores is comparable with those of Smith and colleagues (), who conducted a study with 679 patients examining the necessity of pre‐assessment for anti‐TNF therapy. This indicates that the results are generalizable to other patients attending biologic clinics.…”

DAS28 and Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Need for Standardization

“…The problems inherent in a DAS28 score are well known but all four components (28 swollen and tender joint count, CRP/ESR, VAS score) used to derive the score show high correlations in individual patients (Smith et al, ). The BSR concluded that the DAS28 performs well with training, achieving good agreement among observers, and recommends that all secondary care departments should establish training programmes for specialist nurses and trainees that incorporate reliability assessments for joint counts and DAS28 calculation (Luqmani et al, ).…”