Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Spondyloarthritis

Is it time to replace BASDAI with ASDAS?

Nature Reviews Rheumatology volume 9, pages 388–390 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

The ankylosing spondylitis disease activity score (ASDAS) is a measure of axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) disease activity endorsed by the Assessment of SpA International Society and Outcome Measures in Rheumatology. Accumulating evidence supports the utility of ASDAS in axial SpA. So, is it time to replace the Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI)?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Distribution of patients in a non-PASS state (n = 58) across the various ASDAS disease activity states proposed by ASAS (data extracted from Godfrin-Valnet et al.3).

References

  1. Machado, P. et al. Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS): defining cut-off values for disease activity states and improvement scores. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 70, 47–53 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Machado, P. & van der Heijde, D. How to measure disease activity in axial spondyloarthritis? Curr. Opin. Rheumatol. 23, 339–345 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Godfrin-Valnet, M. et al. Evaluation of spondylarthritis activity by patients and physicians: ASDAS, BASDAI, PASS, and flares in 200 patients. Joint Bone Spine doi:10.1016/j.jbspin.2013.01.003.

  4. Rodriguez-Lozano, C. et al. Patient-acceptable symptom state as an outcome measure in the daily care of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. J. Rheumatol. 39, 1424–1432 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wariaghli, G. et al. Evaluation and stability of the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) over time in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Clin. Exp. Rheumatol. 30, 106–109 (2012).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Pedersen, S. J. et al. ASDAS, BASDAI and different treatment responses and their relation to biomarkers of inflammation, cartilage and bone turnover in patients with axial spondyloarthritis treated with TNFα inhibitors. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 70, 1375–1381 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Machado, P. et al. MRI inflammation and its relation with measures of clinical disease activity and different treatment responses in patients with ankylosing spondylitis treated with a TNF inhibitor. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 71, 2002–2005 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Arends, S. et al. Baseline predictors of response and discontinuation of tumor necrosis factor-α blocking therapy in ankylosing spondylitis: a prospective longitudinal observational cohort study. Arthritis Res. Ther. 13, R94 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fagerli, K. M. et al. Selecting patients with ankylosing spondylitis for TNF inhibitor therapy: comparison of ASDAS and BASDAI eligibility criteria. Rheumatology (Oxford) 51, 1479–1483 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Vastesaeger, N. et al. ASDAS high disease activity may be a better selection criterion than BASDAI elevation for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis patients with anti-TNF therapy. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 70 (Suppl. 3), 127 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

P. Machado was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) grant SFRH/BD/62329/2009.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9600, Leiden, 2300 RC, The Netherlands

    Pedro Machado

  2. Department of Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam, 1105AZ, The Netherlands

    Robert Landewé

Authors
  1. Pedro Machado
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert Landewé
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Landewé.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

P. Machado declares that he is a member of the Assessment in Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS) and was involved in the development of the ASAS-endorsed ankylosing spondylitis disease activity score (ASDAS) cutoffs that are discussed in this article. R. Landewé declares that he is the President of ASAS and one of the designers of the ASAS-endorsed ASDAS.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Machado, P., Landewé, R. Is it time to replace BASDAI with ASDAS?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 9, 388–390 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.93

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.93

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing