RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Development and testing of reduced versions of the MMT-8 in juvenile dermatomyositis JF The Journal of Rheumatology JO J Rheumatol FD The Journal of Rheumatology SP jrheum.200543 DO 10.3899/jrheum.200543 A1 Silvia Rosina A1 Giulia Camilla Varnier A1 Angela Pistorio A1 Clarissa Pilkington A1 Susan Maillard A1 Adele Civino A1 Elena Tsitsami A1 Claudia Bracaglia A1 Marija Jelusic A1 Adriana Cespedes-Cruz A1 Graciela Espada A1 Rolando Cimaz A1 Gerard Coutillault A1 Rik Joos A1 Pierre Quartier A1 Anand Prahalad Rao A1 Clara Malattia A1 Nicolino Ruperto A1 Alessandro Consolaro A1 Angelo Ravelli YR 2020 UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2020/11/10/jrheum.200543.abstract AB Objective To develop and test shortened versions of Manual Muscle Testing-8 (MMT-8) in juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). Methods Construction of reduced tools was based on retrospective analysis of individual scores of MMT-8 muscle groups in three multinational datasets. The 4 and 6 most frequently impaired muscle groups were included in MMT-4 and MMT-6, respectively. Metrologic properties of reduced tools were assessed by evaluating construct validity, internal consistency, discriminant ability, and responsiveness to change. Results Neck flexors, hip extensors, hip abductors and shoulder abductors were included in MMT-4, whereas MMT-6 also included elbow flexors and hip flexors. Both shortened tools revealed strong correlations with MMT-8 and other muscle strength measures. Correlations with other JDM outcome measures were in line with predictions. Internal consistency was good (0.88-0.96) for both MMT-4 and MMT-6. Both reduced tools showed strong ability to discriminate between disease activity states, assessed by the caring physician or a parent (p < 0.001), and between patients whose parents were satisfied or not satisfied with illness course (p < 0.001). Responsiveness to change (assessed by both standardized response mean and relative efficiency) of MMT-4 and, to a lesser degree, MMT-6, was slightly superior to that of MMT-8. Conclusion The metrologic performance of MMT-4 and MMT-6 was overall comparable to that of the other established muscle strength tools, which indicate that they may be suitable for use in clinical practice and research, including clinical trials. The measurement properties of these tools should be further tested in other patient populations evaluated prospectively.