[Validation and first results of the German QUOTE-IBD to measure quality of care from the perspective of patients with inflammatory bowel disease]. / Validierung und erste Ergebnisse des deutschen QUOTE-IBD zur Erfassung der Behandlungsqualität aus Sicht der Patienten mit chronisch-entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen.

INTRODUCTION: The quality of care is especially relevant to patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and may be used in the context of quality management and for evaluation of interventions in health services research. To the best of our knowledge no German disease-specific and validated tool exists to measure the quality of the care that IBD patients receive. METHODS: QUOTE-IBD is a validated questionnaire to assess the disease-specific quality of care from an IBD patient's perspective. It was translated into German and validated after being answered by 100 patients of our IBD outpatient clinic. To assess convergent validity a visual analogue scale and the Qualiskope-A questionnaire measuring patient satisfaction regardless of disease was used. Furthermore, we evaluated quality of care in the patient collective analysed for validation. RESULTS: The German QUOTE-IBD questionaire was very well accepted by patients and showed reliability in measuring overall satisfaction. Good correlations between overall satisfaction and the visual analogue scale as well as patient satisfaction measured by the Qualiskope A could be demonstrated. The mean overall satisfaction among the analysed patient collective was very high. Statements on importance or deficits in specific areas of care can hardly be given because of insufficient reliability and validity at the scale level. DISCUSSION: With the German QUOTE-IBD questionaire there is now a reliable and valid instrument available for measuring quality of care and satisfaction from the perspective of patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

Detection of autoantibodies to tumour-associated antigens in sera of patients with systemic autoimmunity using a novel protein microblot array.

It is well known that sera of patients with systemic autoimmunity contain autoantibodies to nuclear antigens. It is also known that patients with systemic autoimmunity have an increased risk for the development of tumours. Interestingly, tumour patients frequently develop autoantibodies and there is a growing list of potential tumour-associated antigens. It is, however, not known whether or not patients with systemic autoimmunity also develop antibodies to tumour-associated antigens. Here we describe the development of a novel multiprotein array allowing us to screen for autoantibodies to 30 different tumour-associated antigens in parallel. Using this novel assay, we found that the frequency of autoantibodies to the selected tumour-associated antigens is increased between 2- and 14-fold in patients with systemic autoimmunity compared with an age-matched control group.