Impact of the combined presence of erosions and ACPA on rheumatoid arthritis disease activity over time: results from the METEOR registry

What is it about?

Presence of erosions and ACPA are often considered poor prognostic factors based on their association with radiographic damage progression, but with the introduction of treat-to-target ever fewer patients develop significant radiographic damage. Therefore studies investigating alternative clinically relevant outcomes such as disease activity and physical functioning are needed. We investigated in newly diagnosed RA patients if presence of erosions and/or ACPA are associated with functional ability, disease activity and treatment survival during the first year of treatment in daily practice. We found that in newly diagnosed RA-patients who are treated according to modern treatment strategies, the (combined) presence of) ACPA and erosions was no risk factor for worse disease activity or physical functioning, although patients without ACPA and erosions were less likely to switch treatment.

Featured Image