Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Pooled indices to measure rheumatoid arthritis activity: a good reflection of the physician’s mind? | Available online http content 8 1 102 Commentary Pooled indices to measure rheumatoid arthritis activity a good reflection of the physician s mind Daniel Aletaha National Institutes of Arthritis Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases National Institutes of Health Bethesda Maryland USA Corresponding author Daniel Aletaha aletahad@ Published 14 December 2005 Arthritis Research Therapy 2006 8 102 doi ar1870 This article is online at http content 8 1 102 2005 BioMed Central Ltd See related research by Vander Cruyssen et al. in issue http content 7 5 R1063 Abstract Several pooled indices for the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity are available to rheumatologists. Face and criterion validity of these instruments can be assessed by determining the association of their measurements with opinions of physicians. Several confounding aspects must be considered in such analyses especially blinding of the person s making the decisions to the instruments being studied and to the objective of the study in general. From several studies in the literature there is currently no evidence that any one of the available composite indices is better or worse than any other. The choice of index in clinical practice should ideally be based on practical considerations related to the needs of the rheumatologist in the respective health care setting. Several pooled indices are available to measure rheumatoid arthritis RA activity on a continuous scale 1 . These include the Disease Activity Score DAS the DAS based on 28 joint counts DAS28 the Simplified Disease Activity Index SDAI and the Clinical Disease Activity Index CDAI . These indices are essentially based on the same attributes of RA joint counts the patient s evaluation of RA activity and acutephase reactants. The SDAI and CDAI also include the physician s assessment of RA activity and do not require transformation or weighting of the
