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The differences (\u0394) between the T1 and T0 values of the NEMO score and the EScSG and EUSTAR indices were calculated and compared to each other.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>NEMO score values were very closely correlated with the corresponding values of the EScSG and EUSTAR indices both at T0 and T1 observations (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.0001 in all cases with the exception of the correlation with EScSG values at T1 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.03)). The values of the two composite DA indices were also strictly related to each other in both T0 and T1 observations (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.0001).<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed the NEMO score had a good sensitivity and specificity in classifying patients with a predefined level of DA (scores \u2265\u20093.0 and \u2265\u20092.5 for the EScSG and EUSTAR indices, respectively, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.0001 in both cases).<\/jats:p>\n<jats:p>\u0394 values of the NEMO score were significantly correlated with the corresponding values of both the EScSG and EUSTAR indices. Weighted Cohen\u2019s <jats:italic>k<\/jats:italic> level of agreement between \u0394 values of the NEMO score and those of the EScSG and EUSTAR indices was moderate (0.55 and 0.59, respectively).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>NEMO score proves to be a feasible, non-invasive, and valid tool to assess steady state levels and changes over time of DA in patients with SSc. Thus, it can represent an alternative or complementary method to measure this disease status entity in this disorder.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13075-019-2032-6","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,29]],"date-time":"2019-11-29T16:02:48Z","timestamp":1575043368000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["NEMO score in nailfold videocapillaroscopy is a good tool to assess both steady state levels and overtime changes of disease activity in patients with systemic sclerosis: a comparison with the proposed composite indices for this disease status entity"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Francesca","family":"Pignataro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wanda","family":"Maglione","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Antonina","family":"Minniti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Domenico","family":"Sambataro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gianluca","family":"Sambataro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Francesco","family":"Campanaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gabriele","family":"Valentini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Claudio","family":"Vitali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nicoletta","family":"Del Papa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,11,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"2032_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1093","DOI":"10.1016\/j.berh.2008.09.001","volume":"22","author":"M Cutolo","year":"2008","unstructured":"Cutolo M, Pizzorni C, Secchi ME, Sulli A. 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Written informed consent was obtained from all of the enrolled patients.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"All the authors give their consent for the publication of the study. Written informed consent was obtained from the patients for the publication of their anonymised data published in this article. No identifiable patient data are contained in this article. This study does not contain any individual person\u2019s data, so consent for publication is not needed in this case.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"258"}}