Outcome measures in inflammatory rheumatic diseases 英文参考文献.docVIP

Available online /content/11/5/244 Review Outcome measures in inflammatory rheumatic diseases Jaap Fransen and Piet LCM van Riel Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Department of Rheumatology, 6500HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands Corresponding author: J Fransen, j.fransen@reuma.umcn.nl Published: 14 October 2009 Arthritis Research Therapy 2009, 11:244 (doi:10.1186/ar2745) This article is online at /content/11/5/244 ? 2009 BioMed Central Ltd successful treatments in the past decade. For diseases for which there already was effective treatment available, new, more effective or less toxic treatments have been tested and introduced [1]. For diseases for which there was no effective treatment, new treatments have been developed and shown to be effective [1]. A well-known example of this is anti-tumor necrosis factor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis. The ultimate goal of pharmaco- logical treatment in the inflammatory rheumatic diseases nowadays is to reach and sustain remission, including the complete suppression of inflammation and pain and the prevention of excess disability and organ damage. However, sustained remission, not to mention cure, is still difficult to reach. Abstract Inflammatory disorders and, therefore, measurement of multiple outcomes is relevant to most of these diseases. Developments in outcome rheumatic diseases are generally multifaceted measures in the rheumatic diseases are promoted by the development of successful treatments. Outcome measurement will increasingly deal with measurement of low levels of disease activity and avoidance of disease consequences. It is an advantage for patient management and knowledge transfer if the same outcomes are used in practice and in trials. Continuous measures of change are generally the most powerful and, therefore, are preferr