

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not available in every clinical setting, and even if so, high examination costs prohibit frequent follow-up examinations. Moreover, there is a need for training and expertise for US examiners. On the other hand, complete clinical assessment by joint ultrasound (US) requires examination of multiple joints, which can be time-consuming, especially in the case of thorough scoring of the US findings.

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However, DAS28 is only validated in this condition and can be characterized by a series of further limitations, such as examiner dependence and inadequate estimation of subclinical disease activity. Clinical scores such as the “Disease Activity Score 28” (DAS28) can be easily performed and are of undisputable value in the follow-up of RA patients. In the last years, there has been a longstanding discussion regarding the appropriateness of various diagnostic tools in the assessment of inflammatory activity in patients with different kinds of arthritides. Furthermore, tight clinical control has been shown to correlate with more effective and longer inflammatory activity suppression in RA and other arthritides, such as psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Various independent studies have shown that quantitative rather than subjective monitoring of disease activity can lead to treatment decisions with improved outcomes in patients with arthritis. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Īccurate monitoring of disease activity in patients with arthritides is one of the most important conditions for adequate inflammation control, preservation of joint function, and ultimately outcome improvement. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
