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Since the ASAS-endorsed response criteria were published in 2001 (ASAS20 and ASAS partial remission) and in 2004 (ASAS40 and ASAS 5/6), only studies published two years after those dates were included in the assessment of these criteria, in order to give time for the implementation. The number of trials assessing all domains of the core set was analysed for interventions and control group, in trials evaluating interventions with DMARDSs, biologics and glucocorticoids as well as trials with other types of interventions including NSAIDS. In order to illustrate the evolution of the representation of domains and instruments overtime two figures were constructed.
For descriptive purposes, results were presented as means and standard deviations or medians for continuous variables, and as frequencies (percentages) for categorical variables. The Student t-test for independent samples and Chi-square tests (and Fisher test if necessary) were used to compare continuous and dichotomous variables between implementation and control groups, respectively. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 18.0.
RESULTS
Results of the search
The search strategy generated a total of 566 articles. Of these, 127 articles reporting the results of 99 clinical trials fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Reasons to exclude studies are mentioned in the flow chart. An important reason to exclude was that the clinical outcomes we were interested in were not reported (n=15). A summary of the search results is depicted in Figure 1.
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