The DAS is a scoring instrument widely used and adopted by the EULAR to assess RA disease activity. It is a criteria set that combines information from the Ritchie Articular Index, joint counts for tenderness and swelling, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and patient global assessment of their disease activity. The DAS has been validated both for full (DAS 44) and limited joint counts (DAS 28: foot joints are excluded). A DAS score <3.2 is regarded as low-level disease activity, a score of 3.2-5.1 as moderate and a score >5.1 as high-level disease activity. The DAS is used as a criterion for eligibility to have anti-TNF, at least in the UK and the Netherlands.
The DAS was developed by Desiree van der Heijde et al. First published: “Judging disease activity in clinical practice in RA: first step in the development of a disease activity score”. Ann Rheum Dis 1990; 49:916-20. Later: “Development of a disease activity score based on judgement in clinical practice by rheumatologists” J Rheumatol 1993;20;579-81.
DISEASE ACTIVITY SCORE
« Back to Glossary Index