Evaluation and stability of the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) over time in patients with ankylosing spondylitis

• Published in: Clinical and experimental rheumatology 2012, Vol.30 (1), p.106-109
• Main Authors: WAHAGHLI, G, ALLALI, F, IDRISSI, Z, BERRADA, K, HMAMOUCHI, I, ABOUQAL, R, HAJJAJ-HASSOUNI, N
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Diseases of the spine; Female; Humans; Inflammatory joint diseases; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Pain Measurement - methods; Patient Satisfaction; Prospective Studies; Severity of Illness Index; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - diagnosis
• ISSN: 0392-856X; 1593-098X

The Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) is the value beyond which patients consider themselves well. Our aim was to determine the PASS estimate for patients with AS by assessing pain, disease activity and functional impairment and evaluate whether the PASS is stable over time. A 4-week prospective study of patients with AS was carried-out. The PASS was estimated at week 2 and 4 for the following patient reported outcomes: global and nocturnal pain measured on a visual analogue scale, disease activity (BASDAI), and functional impairment (BASFI). We used an anchoring method based on patients answering yes or no to, 'is your current condition satisfactory, when you take your general functioning and your current pain into consideration?' The PASS was defined as the 75th percentile of the score for patients who considered their state satisfactory. Pearson's chi square and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. A total of 200 patients were recruited of whom 110 (55%) were in PASS. The PASS estimates were 60 mm for global pain, 40 mm for night pain, 4.0 for BASDAI and 4.3 for BASFI. These PASS values were stable over time for all criteria except for pain. Significant contributors to PASS were low functional impairment ([BASFI]; p