Does the ACR/EULAR Total Improvement Score Reflect How Individuals With Autoimmune Inflammatory Myopathies Feel and...

Area of Science:

• Rheumatology
• Clinical Trials
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Autoimmune inflammatory myopathies (AIM) are a group of rare, chronic diseases.
• Assessing treatment efficacy in AIM often relies on composite scores.
• The American College of Rheumatology/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology Total Improvement Score (TIS) is one such measure, but its reflection of patient experience is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the association between the TIS and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in individuals with AIM.
• To determine if TIS changes correlate with functional status and symptom improvements as perceived by patients.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of adult AIM patients with active disease was studied over one year.
• Patient-reported outcomes included pain, fatigue (FACIT-fatigue, PROMIS-fatigue), PHQ-9, and SF-36 (PCS/MCS).
• Multivariable linear regression analyzed the relationship between TIS changes and PROs.

Main Results:

• Sixty-five AIM subjects were analyzed.
• Increased TIS was significantly associated with improvements in pain, PROMIS-fatigue, FACIT-fatigue, and SF-36 Physical Component Summary.
• The association between TIS and FACIT-fatigue improvement was influenced by age and disease duration, with shorter duration yielding better results.

Conclusions:

• The TIS is a valuable tool for research in AIM, correlating with key patient-reported outcomes.
• Limitations of TIS were observed in older individuals and those with longer disease duration.
• Further research may be needed to refine TIS interpretation in diverse AIM patient subgroups.