The<unk>  is important because it is a validated diagnostic test which allows a physician (usually a rheumatologist) to determine the effectiveness of a current drug therapy, or the need to institute a new drug therapy for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. The<unk>  consists of a one through 10 scale (one being no problem and 10 being the worst problem) in response to 6 questions pertaining to the 5 major symptoms of AS:
Fatigue
Spinal pain
Joint pain / swelling
Areas of localized tenderness (also called enthesitis, or inflammation of tendons and ligaments)
Morning stiffness duration
Morning stiffness severity
To give each symptom equal weighting, the average of the two scores relating to morning stiffness is taken. The resulting 0 to 50 score is divided by 5 to give a final 0 – 10<unk>  score. Scores of 4 or greater suggest suboptimal control of disease, and patients with scores of 4 or greater are usually good candidates for either a change in their medical therapy, eligible for treatment with powerful biologic therapies such as etanercept, infliximab and adalimumab, or may be eligible for enrollment in clinical trials evaluating new drug therapies directed at Ankylosing Spondylitis.
BASDAI
Borg score
Alvarado score
AMUSE score
Mallampati score
Tygerberg score
CAGE questionnaire
DIPSS Plus Score