The role of disease activity score 28 in the evaluation of articular involvement in XXXX .

@entity1 @entity1252 @entity309 @entity625
Objectives. To evaluate the application of Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28) to assess joint involvement in @entity1252 ( @entity1252 ). Methods. Sixty-nine @entity1252 @entity1 , complaining of joint symptoms, and 44 @entity309 ( @entity309 ) @entity1 were enrolled. In @entity1252 @entity1 disease activity was assessed with SLEDAI-2K. DAS28 was calculated in all the @entity1 . Results. Thirty @entity1252 @entity1 (43.5%) showed clinical signs of @entity625 . Mean DAS28 was 4.0    1.4, 22 @entity1 (31.9%) had low disease activity, 29 (42.0%) moderate, and 18 (26.1%) high. We dichotomized @entity1252 @entity1 according to the presence (Group 1) or absence (Group 2) of articular involvement according to SLEDAI-2K: 56.3% of the @entity1 of the second group had a moderate/high activity according to DAS28. We compared @entity1252 @entity1 with 44 @entity309 @entity1 (M/F 9/35, mean age 55.6    14.5 years; mean disease duration 140.4    105.6 months). No significant differences were found regarding the values of DAS28 between @entity1252 and @entity309 @entity1 . On the contrary, the values of tender and swollen joint count were significantly higher in @entity309 compared to @entity1252 @entity1 (P = 0.0002 and P = 0.0001, resp.). Conclusions. We suggest the use of the DAS28 in the assessment of joint involvement in @entity1252 @entity1 .
