Achievement of remission in two early rheumatoid arthritis cohorts implementing different treat-to-target strategies.

OBJECTIVE: To compare achievement of remission in two early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treat-to-target (TTT) cohorts, one tight control cohort targeting stringent remission in a randomized controlled strategy trial and one observational cohort targeting a looser definition of remission in clinical practice. METHODS: We analyzed data from the ARCTIC trial and the NOR-VEAC observational study. Both were Norwegian multicenter studies including disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD)-naïve RA-patients and implementing TTT. The target in ARCTIC was remission defined as a Disease Activity Score (DAS44) <1.6 plus 0 of 44 swollen joint count, while the target in NOR-VEAC was the less stringent remission of DAS28<2.6. We assessed achievement of the study-specific targets and compared achievement of the ACR/ EULAR Boolean remission during two years of follow-up. RESULTS: We included 189 patients from ARCTIC and 330 patients from NOR-VEAC. More than half in each cohort had reached the study-specific target at 6 months, increasing to more than 60% at 12 and 24 months. The odds of reaching ACR/EULAR Boolean remission during follow-up were higher in ARCTIC than in NOR-VEAC, with statistically significant differences at 3 months (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.03-2.89), 12 months (OR 1.97; 95% CI 1.21-3.20) and 24 months (OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.05 - 3.16). CONCLUSION: A majority of patients in both cohorts reached the study-specific treatment targets. More patients in ARCTIC than in NOR-VEAC achieved ACR/EULAR Boolean remission during follow-up, suggesting that targeting a more stringent definition of remission provide further potential for favorable outcomes of a TTT strategy.

Disease Characteristics and Rheumatoid Arthritis Development in Patients with Early Undifferentiated Arthritis: A 2-year Followup Study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the 2-year disease course in patients with undifferentiated arthritis (UA) focusing on fulfillment of the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) classification criteria. METHODS: Data were provided by the Norwegian Very Early Arthritis Clinic study, which included patients presenting with ≥ 1 swollen joint of ≤ 16 weeks' duration. UA was defined as patients not fulfilling the 2010 ACR/EULAR RA criteria and who did not have a clinical diagnosis other than RA at baseline. The main outcome was fulfillment of the 2010 RA criteria. Secondary outcomes were disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) use, resolution of synovitis without use of DMARD during followup, and final clinical diagnosis. RESULTS: We included 477 patients with UA of whom 47 fulfilled the 2010 ACR/EULAR RA criteria during followup (UA-RA) and 430 did not (UA-non-RA). Of the UA-RA patients, 70% fulfilled the criteria within the first 6 months. UA-RA patients were older, more often positive for rheumatoid factor and anticitrullinated protein antibodies, female, and ever smokers, and they more often presented with polyarticular arthritis, small joint involvement, and a swollen shoulder joint. During followup, 53% of UA-RA patients vs 13% of UA-non-RA patients used DMARD (p < 0.001). Overall, 71% of patients with UA achieved absence of clinical synovitis at final followup without use of DMARD. The most frequent final clinical diagnosis was UA (61%). CONCLUSION: Only 9.8% of patients with UA fulfilled the 2010 RA criteria during 2-year followup. Small joint involvement and swollen shoulder joint were among the factors associated with RA development. In two-thirds of patients with UA, the arthritis resolved without use of DMARD.

Self-limiting arthritis among patients fulfilling the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis in a very early arthritis cohort.

OBJECTIVES: To study occurrence of and factors associated with self-limiting arthritis among patients fulfilling the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (2010 RA criteria) in patients with ≤16 weeks׳ duration of joint swelling. METHODS: We applied the 2010 RA criteria in 1118 patients included in a 2-year longitudinal cohort. In all, 256 patients fulfilled the 2010 RA criteria at baseline; outcome was defined as either "self-limiting arthritis" (no DMARD use during follow-up, no swollen joints at last assessment, and no final clinical diagnosis of RA) or "persistent disease." The associations between baseline characteristics, including the components of the 2010 RA criteria score, and outcomes were studied. RESULTS: In total, 36 of 256 patients (14.1%) classified as having RA had self-limiting arthritis. These patients differed from patients with persistent disease according to ACPA positivity (11.1% vs. 65.0%, p < 0.001), duration of joint swelling (median = 47.5 vs. 66.0 days, p = 0.002), 2010 RA criteria points (median = 6.0 vs. 7.0, p < 0.001), and ever smoking (52.8% vs. 74.5%, p = 0.01). Having no serology points and no duration points were independent predictors of self-limiting arthritis. The rate of self-limiting arthritis was 2.7% vs. 29.4% among ACPA positive vs. ACPA negative patients (p < 0.001), and 32.5% when duration of joint swelling was <4 weeks vs. 10.6% with longer duration (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Negative ACPA status, short duration of joint swelling and being a never smoker were factors associated with self-limiting arthritis in early arthritis patients classified as having RA at presentation. Our findings contribute to identify patients who potentially do not need DMARDs and who should not be included in early RA clinical drug trials.