The STRIPP questionnaire (Screening Tool for Rheumatologic Investigation in Psoriatic Patients) as a new tool for the diagnosis of early psoriatic arthritis.

BACKGROUND

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis associated with psoriasis in up to one third of psoriatic patients. Clinically it's characterized from an insidious onset. To help clinicians screen for PsA, several screening tools have been developed. The psoriatic arthritis screening and evaluation questionnaire (PASE) is one of the most used in the Psocare units. The sensibility of PASE is of 83% with a cut off of 47 or greater. The aim of our study is to create an Italian self-administered questionnaire, lighter than the PASE, able to identify patients who need a rheumatologic consultation.

METHODS

Between April and June 2016 an Italian group of dermatologists and rheumatologists from north Italy developed a new questionnaire called Screening Tool for Rheumatologic Investigation in Psoriatic Patient (STRIPP). Two hundred and twelve patients with the diagnosis of psoriasis, were screened with STRIPP by dermatologists and all of them sent to the rheumatologist.

RESULTS

Forty seven out of 212 patients received the diagnosis of early psoriatic arthritis. Statistical analysis (Spearman Rank correlation Test, Mann Whitney Test) showed a specificity of 93.3% and a sensibility of 91.5% taking a point of 3.5 as a cut-off.

CONCLUSIONS

The STRIPP is a very easy questionnaire, quick to fill out and has a very high sensitivity and specificity, higher than the PASE. Our future goal will be to screen more patients for validating the STRIPP questionnaire.