The Key to Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

In addition to the new criteria, a prognostic tool for predicting RA development in patients with recent onset UA has been derived. This prediction rule does not alter the current definition of RA and does not primarily classify patients; rather, this rule provides the likelihood of an individual patient’s chance to progress towards RA. The predictive accuracy of this model is widely validated. Although the approaches were different (deriving new classification criteria or a prognostic tool), both efforts were driven by the concept that UA patients with an unfortunate prognosis should be identified early. Hopefully these efforts will lead to improved outcomes for patients with early undifferentiated arthritis and provide the foundation for new treatment strategies directed at achieving remission and preventing disease progress, permanent damage, and disability.

Dr. van der Helm-van Mil is head of the outpatient clinic in the department of rheumatology and Dr. Huizinga is chair of rheumatology, both at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands.

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