ABSTRACT
Objective To validate the discriminatory capacity of the new ankylosing spondylitis disease activity scores (ASDAS) in Chinese ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, and assess its clinical value. Method One hundred and twenty-nine patients with AS was included in the study, in which 87 were par-ticipat clinical trials with Etanercept (n=87) and 42 were participants of clinical trails with. The disease activity and treatment effecticacy were assessed by ASDAS, BASDAI and patient global assessment. Discriminatory ability of all the measures was analyzed as standardized mean difference (SMD) and (-score. Pearson's correlation, two indepen -dent samples t test and simple linear regression model were used for statistical analysis. Result The four ASDAS scores correlated well with patient global assessment (r=0.56～0.74), ESR (r=0.50～0.80) and CRP (r=0.50～0.69) both at baseline and the changes form baseline to 6 weeks after treatment. The four ASDAS outperformed BASDAI, patient global assessment, ESR and CRP in differentiating patients with different levels of disease activity and patients with different levels of change. There was little difference in performance between the four ASDAS versions. Conclusion The four ASDAS are highly discriminatory in evaluating the disease activity and the efficacy of drugs in Chinese AS patients, showing a significant value in clinical practice.