title: The role of disease activity score 28 in the evaluation of articular involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the application of Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28) to assess joint involvement in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-nine SLE patients, complaining of joint symptoms, and 44 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients were enrolled. In SLE patients disease activity was assessed with SLEDAI-2K. DAS28 was calculated in all the patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty SLE patients (43.5%) showed clinical signs of arthritis. Mean DAS28 was 4.0±1.4, 22 patients (31.9%) had low disease activity, 29 (42.0%) moderate, and 18 (26.1%) high. We dichotomized SLE patients according to the presence (Group 1) or absence (Group 2) of articular involvement according to SLEDAI-2K: 56.3% of the patients of the second group had a moderate/high activity according to DAS28. We compared SLE patients with 44 RA patients (M/F 9/35, mean age 55.6±14.5 years; mean disease duration 140.4±105.6 months). No significant differences were found regarding the values of DAS28 between SLE and RA patients. On the contrary, the values of tender and swollen joint count were significantly higher in RA compared to SLE patients (P=0.0002 and P=0.0001, resp.).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest the use of the DAS28 in the assessment of joint involvement in SLE patients.
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvia
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5026-8783
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ceccarelli
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4771-6981
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perricone
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Massaro
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Viviana Antonella
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Pacucci
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Enrica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cipriano
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Truglia
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca Romana
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1969-2097
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alessandri
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valesini
authors.affiliation: Lupus Clinic, Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Conti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology*; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged