Novel Sonographic Score for PsA Dactylitis Tested in Real-World Setting

A novel sonographic score to gauge dactylitis in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) correlated with clinical features in patients and captured changes experienced with treatment, according to a study published in Rheumatology.

The performance of the DACTOS (DACtylitis glObal Sonographic) score was evaluated in 46 consecutive patients with symptomatic psoriatic arthritis hand dactylitis in a real-world clinical setting. Before and after treatment, patients underwent both sonographic and clinical assessments of a total 73 dactylitic fingers. Clinical assessments included the Leeds Dactylitis Index-basic (LDI-b) score and visual analogue scales for pain and functional impairment.

“In particular, we evaluated the ability of DACTOS to identify the affected fingers, its sensitivity to change after treatment, the correlations between DACTOS and clinical parameters, and the capacity of the score to identify the treatment responders,” researchers wrote.

After dactylitis treatment, all clinical assessments as well as DACTOS scores showed significant improvement, according to the study. At 1 month and 3 months after baseline, the correlation between the variations of all clinical parameters and the DACTOS score was significant.

The study found statistically significant differences in DACTOS scores between clinical responder and nonresponder groups as well as between clinical remission and nonremission groups, researchers reported.

“The DACTOS score performs well in real-life clinical settings in terms of sensitivity to change and correlations with clinical features in psoriatic arthritis dactylitis,” researchers concluded.

—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference

Girolimetto N, Zabotti A, Tinazzi I, et al. Sensitivity to change and clinical correlations of the novel DACtylitis glObal Sonographic (DACTOS) score in psoriatic arthritis. Rheumatology. 2021;60(9):4103-4111.