RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Visual Assessment of the Spine Bruckel Instrument, a Novel Status Tool to Reflect Appearance of the Spine in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP jrheum.090548
DO 10.3899/jrheum.090548
A1 Dominik W. Podbielski
A1 Jane Bruckel
A1 Emma Pomeroy
A1 Robert D. Inman
A1 Robert W. Warren
A1 Laurie M. Savage
A1 Jenny Richardson
A1 Angelo Papachristos
A1 Rebecca J. Mogg
A1 Millicent A. Stone
YR 2010
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2010/02/11/jrheum.090548.abstract
AB Objective The Visual Assessment of the Spine Bruckel Instrument (VASBI) is a new status tool developed by the Spondylitis Association of America and the University of Toronto to reflect spinal appearance in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Our objective was to validate the VASBI according to the Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials filter (truth, discrimination, and feasibility). Methods Three hundred patients with AS were asked to rate their degree of perceived spinal deformity using the VASBI. To evaluate construct validity, VASBI scores were compared with functional outcome, spinal mobility, and radiographic spinal damage. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using kappa statistic (κ). Results Patient VASBI demonstrated strong correlation with spinal mobility (r = 0.543) and moderate correlation with functional impairment (r = 0.490) and structural damage (r = 0.309). Reliability for VASBI was very good (κ = 0.973, p < 0.001). Conclusion The VASBI is a novel tool with practical applications in a busy clinical setting as it simplifies assessment of AS spinal deformity. Our study demonstrates that the VASBI has good feasibility, construct validity, and reliability.