The comparative responsiveness of Hospital Universitario Princesa Index and other composite indices for assessing rheumatoid arthritis activity

Objective To evaluate the responsiveness in terms of correlation of the Hospital Universitario La Princesa Index (HUPI) comparatively to the traditional composite indices used to assess disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to compare the performance of HUPI-based response criteria with that of the EULAR response criteria. Methods Secondary data analysis from the following studies: ACT-RAY (clinical trial), PROAR (early RA cohort) and EMECAR (pre-biologic era long term RA cohort). Responsiveness was evaluated by: 1) comparing change from baseline (Delta) of HUPI with Delta in other scores by calculating correlation coefficients; 2) calculating standardised effect sizes. The accuracy of response by HUPI and by EULAR criteria was analyzed using linear regressions in which the dependent variable was change in global assessment by physician (Delta GDA-Phy). Results Delta HUPI correlation with change in all other indices ranged from 0.387 to 0.791); HUPI's standardized effect size was larger than those from the other indices in each database used. In ACT-RAY, depending on visit, between 65 and 80% of patients were equally classified by HUPI and EULAR response criteria. However, HUPI criteria were slightly more stringent, with higher percentage of patients classified as non-responder, especially at early visits. HUPI response criteria showed a slightly higher accuracy than EULAR response criteria when using Delta GDA-Phy as gold standard. Conclusion HUPI shows good responsiveness in terms of correlation in each studied scenario (clinical trial, early RA cohort, and established RA cohort). Response criteria by HUPI seem more stringent than EULAR''s

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Preliminary testing by adults of a haptics-assisted robot platform designed for children with physical impairments to access play

"Development of children’s cognitive and perceptual skills depends heavily on object exploration and experience in their physical world. For children who have severe physical impairments, one of the biggest concerns is the loss of opportunities for meaningful play with objects, including physical contact and manipulation. Assistive robots can enable children to perform object manipulation through the control of simple interfaces. Touch sensations conveyed through haptic interfaces in the form of force reflection or force assistance can help a child to sense the environment and to control a robot. A robotic system with forbidden region virtual fixtures (VFs) was tested in an object sorting task. Three sorting tasks—by color, by shape, and by both color and shape—were performed by 10 adults without disability and one adult with cerebral palsy. Tasks performed with VFs were accomplished faster than tasks performed without VFs, and deviations of the motion area were smaller with VFs than without VFs. For the participant with physical impairments, two out of three tasks were slower with the VFs. This implies that forbidden region VFs are not always able to improve user task performance. Alignment with an individual’s unique motion characteristics can improve VF assistance. © 2018, © 2018 RESNA.

Preliminary testing by adults of a haptics-assisted robot platform designed for children with physical impairments to access play

Development of children’s cognitive and perceptual skills depends heavily on object exploration and experience in their physical world. For children who have severe physical impairments, one of the biggest concerns is the loss of opportunities for meaningful play with objects, including physical contact and manipulation. Assistive robots can enable children to perform object manipulation through the control of simple interfaces. Touch sensations conveyed through haptic interfaces in the form of force reflection or force assistance can help a child to sense the environment and to control a robot. A robotic system with forbidden region virtual fixtures (VFs) was tested in an object sorting task. Three sorting tasks—by color, by shape, and by both color and shape—were performed by 10 adults without disability and one adult with cerebral palsy. Tasks performed with VFs were accomplished faster than tasks performed without VFs, and deviations of the motion area were smaller with VFs than without VFs. For the participant with physical impairments, two out of three tasks were slower with the VFs. This implies that forbidden region VFs are not always able to improve user task performance. Alignment with an individual’s unique motion characteristics can improve VF assistance. © 2018, © 2018 RESNA