BACKGROUND In most patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Disease Activity Score 28-joint count C reactive protein (DAS28-CRP) is lower than DAS28 erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR), suggesting that use of the DAS28-ESR cut-off to assess high disease activity (HDA) with DAS28-CRP may underestimate the number of patients with HDA. We determined the DAS28-CRP value corresponding to the ...

Background: Disease Activity Score-28 joints (DAS-28) is nowadays the gold standard for measuring the disease activity in patients with RA. The original DAS-28 was based on erythrocyte sedimentation (ESR), but an alternative formula incorporating C-reative protein (CRP) [DAS-28(CRP)] has been developed. Objectives: To compare the disease activity score DAS28-ESR versus DAS28–CRP, and to determi...

OBJECTIVE We assessed blood pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and macrophage chemotactic factor-1 (MCP-1) levels as indicators of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, because data on disease activity score 28 (DAS28)-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and DAS28-C-reactive protein (CRP) are still imperfect. METHODS In 111 patients with RA, we examined longitudinal and cross-sectional cor...

INTRODUCTION The DAS28 score has now consolidated as a fundamental variable for the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis activity and is the main parameter used to establish therapeutic decisions in this disease, including the start and change of biologic therapies. OBJECTIVES We have studied the clinimetric properties of DAS28, including ceiling and floor effects and its behavior in several cl...

Background: DAS28 is interpreted as the inflammatory disease activity of RA. Non-inflammatory pain mechanisms can confound assessment. We aimed to examine the use of DAS28 components or DAS28-derived measures that have been published as indices of non-inflammatory pain mechanisms, to inform interpretation of disease activity. Methods: Data were used from multiple observational epidemiology stud...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to determine a low disease activity threshold--a 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28) value--for the decision to maintain unchanged disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment in rheumatoid arthritis patients, based on expert opinion. METHODS Nine hundred and sixty-seven case scenarios with various levels for each component of the DAS28 (re...

Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28) is commonly used to evaluate disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is a guide to treatment decision.The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of lower reporting limit for C-reactive protein (CRP), with respect to intraindividual biological variability, on the calculation of DAS28 and subsequent patient classification.This study cons...

OBJECTIVE To assess the flare rate using published criteria (Disease Activity Score in 28 joints [DAS28-2] increase between visits of >1.2 or >0.6 if current DAS28 ≥3.2) in patients receiving constant treatment, and to compare published flare criteria to criteria used by study investigators after biologic treatment discontinuation in the ACT-RAY study. METHODS Patients with rheumatoid arthrit...