RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Evaluation of patient and physician assessments of gastrointestinal disease activity in systemic sclerosis JF The Journal of Rheumatology JO J Rheumatol FD The Journal of Rheumatology SP jrheum.220832 DO 10.3899/jrheum.220832 A1 Laura Ross A1 Susanna Proudman A1 Jennifer Walker A1 Wendy Stevens A1 Nava Ferdowsi A1 Alannah Quinlivan A1 Kathleen Morrisroe A1 Murray Baron A1 Mandana Nikpour YR 2022 UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2022/11/10/jrheum.220832.abstract AB Objective To assess whether patient and physician global assessment of gastrointestinal disease in systemic sclerosis (SSc) are associated with a meaningful change in disease status. Methods One hundred and forty-three participants from the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study were recruited to this study. Using logistic regression analysis, we evaluated the relationship between patient and physician assessed gastrointestinal disease status and symptoms, measures of health-related quality of life (Medical Short Form 36 (SF-36)) and gastrointestinal disease severity, measured by the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC) UCLA Gastrointestinal Tract 2.0 Score (GIT 2.0). Results Patient-reported worsening of gastrointestinal symptoms in the month preceding assessment was significantly associated with more severe gastrointestinal disease (OR 6.14, p<0.01) and progressive worsening gastrointestinal disease severity as measured by the GIT 2.0 score (OR 45.98, p<0.01). The new onset of reflux was the only specific symptom associated with patient reported gastrointestinal disease activity (OR 2.98, p=0.04). Physician assessed gastrointestinal disease activity was not significantly associated with higher GIT 2.0 scores or increasing severity of disease. Patient and physician assessed gastrointestinal activity was not associated with SF-36 scores. Conclusion In the absence of objective measures of gastrointestinal disease activity in SSc, patient-reported symptoms of gastrointestinal disease could be used to indicate disease activity and merit consideration for inclusion in a multi-system disease activity index.