Efficacy of Magnetotherapy in Hand Erosive Osteoarthritis.

The visual analogue scale or visual analog scale (VAS) is a psychometric response scale which measures subjective characteristics or attitudes that cannot be directly measured, like pain. When responding to a VAS item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement by indicating a position along a continuous line between two end-points: one meaning no pain and the opposite one meaning the worst pain.

The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire is a self-administered region-specific outcome instrument developed as a measure of self-rated upper-extremity disability and symptoms. The DASH consists mainly of a 30-item disability/symptom scale, scored 0 (no disability) to 100.

Modified Kapandji Index is a rate of hand mobility assessment. The final result is obtained by adding the results of the 3 tests: test opposition of the thumb (It consists of touching the 4 fingers with the thumb pulp. It scores from 0 to 10); fingers flexion test (It consists of following the thumb with each of the fingers, scoring from 0 (impossible to achieve) to 20 (completely achieved)); fingers extension test (It consists of stretching the hand on a table and get the maximum contact with the surface of the table, scoring from 0 (impossible to achieve) to 20 (completely achieved)).

JAMAR dynamometry is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the muscular strength of the hands. It is needed to be well performed. The patient is placed in a sitting position with the elbows flexed to 90 degrees without supporting them and the JAMAR is approached to him to be able to make 3 strength determinations with each hand. The final value is extracted from the average of the 3 values of each hand.

SF-36 is a self-administered questionnaire that can be answered in approximately 10 minute. It quantifies thepatients health status using 8 scales that measure three aspects: functional status, well-being and overall health assessment. 8 numbers between 0 and 100 are obtained. The higher score, the better health status is.