Relationship Between Health-Related Quality of Life and Patient Acceptable Symptom State With Disease Activity and Functional Status in Patients With Ankylosing Spondylitis in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify factors associated with EuroQoL-5 Dimensions, 5 Levels and Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) and health utility (HU) in Thai patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of consecutive AS patients visiting Siriraj Hospital between May 31, 2012, and March 31, 2016. Demographic data and outcomes related to HU (Thai version of EuroQoL-5 Dimensions, 5 Levels), disease activity (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate or Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score-C-reactive protein, number of tender and swollen joints, and enthesitis), and functional status (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index and Health Assessment Questionnaire) were collected. Regression analysis was used to explore factors associated with each EuroQOL-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) domain, HU, and PASS. RESULTS: Among 119 AS patients, the mean age was 40.4 years; 61.3% were male. The mean EQ-5D was 0.75. In univariate analysis, lower disease activity and less impaired function were significantly associated with higher HU and not to mild problems in each EQ-5D domain. In multivariate regression analysis, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, C-reactive protein, and Health Assessment Questionnaire adjusting for age explained 77.4% of the HU variance. Patients answering yes to PASS were significantly older, had higher HU, and lower disease activity compared with those answering no to PASS. Usual activity and pain problems were importantly related to PASS after adjusting for other domains and age. CONCLUSIONS: Disease activity and functional status in AS patients were significant factors related to HU and PASS. To improve quality of life, treatment goals should be achieving remission, improving function, and controlling pain.

Developing the Thai Siriraj Psoriatic Arthritis Screening Tool and validating the Thai Psoriasis Epidemiology Screening Tool and the Early Arthritis for Psoriatic Patients questionnaire.

To validate the Thai language version of the Psoriasis Epidemiology Screening Tool (PEST) and the Early Arthritis for Psoriatic Patients Questionnaire (EARP), as well as also to develop a new tool for screening psoriatic arthritis (PsA) among psoriasis (Ps) patients. This was a cross-sectional study. Ps patients visiting the psoriasis clinic at Siriraj Hospital were recruited. They completed the EARP and PEST. Full musculoskeletal history, examination, and radiography were evaluated. PsA was diagnosed by a rheumatologist's evaluation and fulfillment of the classification criteria for psoriatic arthritis. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves, sensitivity, and specificity were used to evaluate the performances of the tools. The Siriraj Psoriatic Arthritis Screening Tool (SiPAT) contained questions most relevant to peripheral arthritis, axial inflammation, and enthesitis, selected from multivariate analysis. Of a total of 159 patients, the prevalence of PsA was 78.6 %. The ROC curve analyses of Thai EARP, PEST, and SiPAT were 0.90 (95 % CI 0.84, 0.96), 0.85 (0.78, 0.92), and 0.89 (0.83, 0.95), respectively. The sensitivities of SiPAT, Thai EARP, and PEST were 91.0, 83.0, and 72.0 %, respectively, while the specificities were 69.0, 79.3, and 89.7 %, respectively. All screening questionnaires showed good diagnostic performances. SiPAT could be considered as a screening tool with its desirable properties: higher sensitivity and taking less time. Thai PEST and EARP could possibly be sequentially administered for people with a positive test from SiPAT to reduce the number of false positives.