Outcome Scores in Pediatric Rheumatology.

A rational management of patients with pediatric rheumatic diseases requires the regular assessment of the level of disease activity and damage, as well as the evaluation of therapeutic response through validated and standardized outcome measures. Ideally, such tools should be simple, feasible, and easily applicable in routine care. Recently, there has been a great deal of effort to refine existing tools and devise novel outcome measures, aiming to address the various aspects of disease impact and to improve the reliability of research studies and clinical trials. The newest outcome tools in pediatric rheumatology have markedly enlarged the spectrum of health domains assessable in a standardized way, thus increasing the reliability of evaluation of clinical response and fostering future clinical trials.