Development of an assessment tool for dactylitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis

Philip S. Helliwell, Jill Firth, Gamal H. Ibrahim, Richard D. Melsom, Irfan Shah, Deborah Turner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

164 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is characterized by inflammatory arthritis in the presence of psoriasis. Certain clinical features help characterize this disorder, one of which is dactylitis. Hitherto an instrument for quantifying dactylitis has not been developed. Adactylitis score sheet was developed. The score is a function of finger circumference and tenderness, assessed and summed across all dactylitic digits. Initial results were obtained on a small sample of patients attending clinics. Inter and intraobserver agreement on the presence of dactylitis using kappa agreement statistics, and the validity and reliability of the instrument, using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), were assessed in a further group of 7 patients with PsA. A new method for quantifying dactylitis based on digital circumference and tenderness has been described. This instrument has shown good inter and intraobserver reliability. Further studies of responsiveness are now required.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Rheumatology
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2005

Keywords

  • dactylitis
  • rheumatology
  • arthritis

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