Table 2.
Patient example of contrast-values and the index ‘Treatment Duration Control’ (TDC)
| Reference item ( i ) | Reference score (S 1, i ) | Later score (S 2, i ) | Contrast, C i = (S 2, i - S 1, i )/(S 2, i + S 1, i ) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
anamnesis: | |||
| (1) VAS-score of intensity of predominant pain (mm) |
20 |
3 |
−0.739 |
| (2) pain of the jaws (frequency) |
3 |
1 |
−0.500 |
| (3) stiffness and/or fatigue of the jaw muscles (frequency) |
3 |
1 |
−0.500 |
| (4) impaired movement of the jaw (frequency) |
3 |
0 |
−1.000 |
| |
|
|
|
|
clinical examination: | |||
| (5) pain intensity on the right side during passive jaw opening |
2 |
0 |
−1.000 |
| (6) pain intensity on the left side during passive jaw opening |
2 |
0 |
−1.000 |
| (7) pain intensity during palpation of the right deep masseter muscle |
2 |
1 |
−0.333 |
| (8) pain intensity during palpation of the left deep masseter muscle |
2 |
1 |
−0.333 |
| (9) pain intensity during palpation of the insertion of the right occipital muscle |
2 |
0 |
−1.000 |
| (10) pain intensity during palpation of the insertion of the left occipital muscle |
2 |
1 |
−0.333 |
| |
|
|
|
| TDCanamnestic-items = (∑ Ci)/4 = [−0.739-0.500-0.500-1.000]/4) = |
−0.685 |
||
| TDCclinical-items = (∑ Ci)/6 = 1.000-1.000-0.333-0.333-1.000-0.333]/6) = |
−0.666 |
||
| TDC = (∑ Ci)/10 = [−0.739-(2 × 0.500)-(4 × 1.000)-(3 × 0.333)]/10) = | −0.674 | ||
Reference item (i), item with a sufficiently large score-value (see text) of which changes are followed. In this example of a patient, there are 4 reference items related to anamnestic questions and 6 items related to the clinical examination, thus 10 reference items in total (i = 1..10). S 2,i , score value of item i at a later visit (‘visit 2’) than S 1,i , the reference value item i that was observed for the first time at an earlier visit (‘visit 1’). Except the VAS-scores, all other scores originate from adjectival 0–4 point scales (Table 1). C i , Contrast-value being the ratio of the difference and sum between the second and the first score values of item i.. TDC, the index Treatment Duration Control, being the mean Contrast-value averaged across all items. TDCanamnestic-items and TDCclinical-items, mean TDC averaged across the anamnestic items and the clinical items respectively.