Various definitions of remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been proposed. The ACR (American College of Rheumatology--formerly ARA, American Rheumatism Association) remission criteria are strict and include nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue. More recently remission according to the Disease Activity Index (DAS) and DAS28 has been described. However, patients who meet the DAS28 remissio...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate different methods of reporting response to treatment or disease status for their ability to discriminate between active therapy and placebo, or to reflect structural progression or patient satisfaction with treatment using an exploratory analysis of the Abatacept in Inadequate Responders to Methotrexate (AIM) trial. METHODS 424 active (abatacept approximately 10 mg/kg) ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of nurse-led care (NLC) for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS In a multicentre pragmatic randomised controlled trial, the assessment of clinical effects followed a non-inferiority design, while patient satisfaction and cost assessments followed a superiority design. Participants were 181 adults with RA rando...

BACKGROUND Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a biomarker increasingly used for the assessment of systemic inflammation. We aimed to evaluate suPAR for the assessment of inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in remission. METHODS In our cross-sectional study we measured plasma suPAR and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels as well as erythrocyte sedim...

INTRODUCTION This study describes the results of the Belgian 'MabThera In Rheumatoid Arthritis (MIRA)' registry: effectiveness, safety and evaluation of the current retreatment practice on the background of the Belgian reimbursement criteria for rituximab. METHODS All Belgian rheumatologists had the possibility to participate in the study. Patients entered the registry in November 2006 and th...

AIMS To evaluate potential differences between PF-05280586 and rituximab sourced from the European Union (rituximab-EU) and USA (rituximab-US) in clinical response (Disease Activity Score in 28 Joints [DAS28] and American College of Rheumatology [ACR] criteria), as part of the overall biosimilarity assessment of PF-05280586. METHODS A randomised, double-blind, pharmacokinetic similarity trial...

INTRODUCTION To investigate the course of functional status assessed by health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with sustained clinical remission (REM). METHODS In recent RA clinical trials, we identified patients with subsequent visits of ≥24 weeks in clinical REM according to the disease activity score using 28-joint counts including C-reactive protein (D...

INTRODUCTION Non-adherence to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) hampers the targets of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment, obtaining low disease activity and decreasing radiological progression. This study investigates if, and to what extent, non-adherence to treatment would lead to a higher 28-joint count disease activity score (DAS28) in the first year after diagnosis. METHODS...

BACKGROUND Preliminary, mostly uncontrolled studies suggest that dose reduction or discontinuation of tumour necrosis factor blockers can be achieved in a relevant proportion of patients with RA without loss of disease control. However, long term safety, cost effectiveness and feasibility in clinical practice remain uncertain. METHODS/DESIGN This study is a 18-months pragmatic, non-inferiorit...

BACKGROUND Methotrexate (MTX) is standard treatment for RA. Absorption is better in subcutaneous MTX (scMTX), which may impact speed of onset. In RA, earlier time to remission improves long-term results. Our objectives were to determine rapidity of response of subcutaneous methotrexate in early rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS The change in several disease activity measures (including DAS28) fro...