Capacity of the changes in clinical and ultrasonographic scoring systems to discriminate groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis based on their condition after 4 months of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blocker therapy
| Doctor's global assessment* | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoring system | Yes† | No | Standardised mean difference‡ |
| Joint count§ | |||
| 20 Clinical | −3.1 ± 3.2 | −2.5 ± 3.0 | −0.18 (−0.69 to 0.32) |
| 20 US B mode | −3.5 ± 4.4 | −1.4 ± 4.2 | −0.47 (−0.99 to 0.05) |
| 20 US power Doppler | −3.2 ± 3.6 | −2.0 ± 3.9 | −0.33 (−0.84 to 0.19) |
| 28 Clinical | −6.4 ± 4.4 | −3.3 ± 4.4 | −0.69 (−1.23 to −0.16) |
| 28 US B mode | −5.4 ± 6.0 | −1.5 ± 5.1 | −0.71 (−1.24 to −0.18) |
| 28 US power Doppler | −3.5 ± 4.1 | −2.2 ± 5.1 | −0.29 (−0.81 to 0.22) |
| 38 Clinical | −6.9 ± 5.0 | −4.1 ± 5.1 | −0.55 (−1.08 to −0.02) |
| 38 US B mode | −6.5 ± 7.2 | −2.2 ± 7.0 | −0.60 (−1.14 to −0.06) |
| 38 US power Doppler | −4.9 ± 5.1 | −3.3 ± 6.0 | −0.30 (−0.82 to 0.23) |
| Clinical DAS28 ESR | −2.2 ± 1.3 | −1.2 ± 1.0 | −0.86 (−1.40 to −0.31) |
| US B mode DAS28 ESR | −2.0 ± 1.3 | −0.9 ± 0.9 | −0.92 (−1.46 to −0.37) |
| US power Doppler DAS28 ESR | −2.0 ± 1.3 | −9.0 ± 1.0 | −0.85 (−1.38 to −0.31) |
| Joint score§ | |||
| 20 Clinical | −8.8 ± 9.3 | −6.0 ± 6.2 | −0.35 (−0.86 to 0.16) |
| 20 US B mode | −9.6 ± 9.3 | −3.9 ± 9.0 | −0.62 (−1.15 to −0.09) |
| 20 US power Doppler | −5.9 ± 6.6 | −4.5 ± 7.6 | −0.20 (−0.72 to 0.31) |
| 28 Clinical | −15.6 ± 13.5 | −8.8 ± 8.6 | −0.57 (−1.10 to −0.04) |
| 28 US B mode | −13.4 ± 11.5 | −5.7 ± 12.1 | −0.66 (−1.18 to −0.13) |
| 28 US power Doppler | −7.2 ± 6.8 | −5.1 ± 8.5 | −0.29 (−0.81 to 0.23) |
| 38 Clinical | −17.9 ± 16.6 | −10.6 ± 9.7 | −0.51 (−1.04 to 0.01) |
| 38 US B mode | −16.7 ± 14.2 | −6.9 ± 14.5 | −0.68 (−1.22 to −0.14) |
| 38 US power Doppler | −9.5 ± 8.7 | −7.0 ± 10.1 | −0.27 (−0.80 to 0.26) |
Condition of the patient at the end of the study categorised by an improvement of at least 50% in the doctor's overall assessment (yes (n=36), no (n=27), missing data (n=5).
↵* Values given are mean ± SD. The SD of the standardised response mean was estimated using the bootstrap technique.
↵† Doctor's global: improvement in the doctor's global assessment (0–100 visual analogue scale) of at least 50% during the study.
↵‡ Values given are standardised mean difference (95% CI).
↵§ See Patients and methods section for the definition of count vs score and for the description of the evaluated joints.
DAS28, 28-joint Disease Activity Score; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; US, ultrasound.