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Publications
Publications (27)
Objectives:
To study the impact of treatment strategy on achieving and sustaining disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-free remission in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods:
Two hundred seventy-nine RA patients (median follow-up 7.8 years) were studied. Of these, 155 patients participated in a disease activity score (DAS) <...
Background
Although infrequent, some rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-patients achieve disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-free sustained remission. Absence of RA-specific auto-antibodies, such as anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) are known to be associated with this outcome, but furthermore mechanisms underlying the chronic nature of R...
Background
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) typically requires lifelong treatment. However, some RA patients achieve sustained disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-free remission, which is a proxy for cure of RA that has become increasingly achievable, as reported previously. DMARD-free sustained remission has been reported mostly in autoantibody-...
Background
Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD)-free remission is an achievable outcome in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The influence of treatment strategy on the ability to achieve and sustain this outcome is unclear. Therefore, we compared the prevalence and sustenance of DMARD-free remission in RA-patients treated in a trial with intensiv...
Background
The development of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is often preceded by a symptomatic phase of arthralgia. The etiology of symptoms in this phase is unclear.
Objectives
Since subclinical joint inflammation is expected to be causally related to pain, we aimed to determine associations between subclinical MRI-detected inflammation and pain in p...
Background:
Although infrequent, some rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients achieve disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-free sustained remission. The absence of RA-specific autoantibodies, such as anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), is known to be associated with this outcome but further mechanisms underlying the chronic nature of R...
Background
Anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies have recently been reported to occur in around 45% of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to have prognostic and diagnostic properties. At present, the breadth and molecular make-up of the anti-CarP antibody response is ill defined. To understand the anti-CarP antibody immune response a...
Objectives:
The use of hand and foot MRI in the diagnostic process of RA has been advocated. Recent studies showed that MRI is helpful in predicting progression from clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA) to clinical arthritis, and from undifferentiated arthritis (UA) to RA. Symptom-free persons can also show inflammation on MRI. This study aimed to...
Objectives:
Recently a EULAR-taskforce defined arthralgia suspicious for progression to RA, in order to allow inclusion of homogeneous sets of arthralgia patients in clinical studies. This longitudinal study aimed (i) to validate this definition in arthralgia patients in whom rheumatologists felt that imminent RA was more likely than other arthral...
Objective
Although anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-positive and ACPA-negative rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have different aetiopathology, the clinical presentation at the time of diagnosis is similar. This study evaluated whether there are phenotypic differences in the symptomatic pre-RA phase.
Methods
Patients with arthralgia included in t...
Introduction
A phase of arthralgia may precede the emergence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although several studies have focused on biomarkers, the relevance of this phase for patients is less studied. It is unknown if patients already have functional limitations and if this is correlated to the extent of subclinical inflammation. Therefore, we ass...
Background
Recently a European League Against Rheumatology (EULAR)-taskforce has defined arthralgia suspicious for progression to rheumatoid arthritis (RA)¹, in order to allow inclusion of homogeneous sets of arthralgia patients in clinical studies. This was done as the field is currently shifting towards performing trials in very early disease pha...
Background
Early identification of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is important, because it allows early treatment initiation and is associated with better disease outcomes. In this perspective, the use of hand and foot MRI in the diagnostic process of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been advocated. Recent studies showed that MRI is helpful in predicting p...
Objective:
Prevention of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was the aim of several trials in undifferentiated arthritis (UA), with overall negative results. As preparatory work has revealed that only ∼30% of UA patients progress to having RA, we hypothesized that inclusion of patients without imminent RA could lead to false-negative results. We undertook t...
Objectives
MRI sensitively detects inflammation, but the clinical relevance of MRI-detected inflammation is undetermined in early arthritis. Therefore, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between MRI-detected inflammation of hands and feet and functional disability in early arthritis.
Methods
Five hundred and f...
Background
MRI sensitively detects inflammation, but the clinical relevance of MRI-detected inflammation is undetermined in early arthritis. Therefore, this cross-sectional study investigated the association between MRI-detected inflammation of hands and feet and functional disability in early arthritis.
Methods
514 early arthritis patients, conse...
Background
A phase of arthralgia precedes the emergence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This phase is not yet well characterized. The presence of MRI-detected subclinical inflammation has been identified in this phase and is correlated with RA development. However, it is unknown if patients with arthralgia at risk for RA (with and without subclinical...
Objectives
Anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-positive and ACPA-negative rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have different genetic risk factors and underlying biological mechanisms. Therefore, we hypothesized that patients' characteristics in the symptomatic phase before clinical arthritis has emerged are also different. We investigated this by stud...
Background The severity of joint destruction has decreased during the last decennia and the result of changes in treatment strategies. Because joint destruction is a less relevant disease outcome nowadays, other long-term outcomes will become more important, as DMARD-free sustained remission that reflects loss of arthritis persistence.
Objectives T...
Objective:
Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-free sustained remission, the sustained absence of synovitis after cessation of DMARD therapy, is a relevant long-term outcome of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) if (1) its occurrence is promoted by treatment and (2) this status reflects resolution of symptoms and disability. This study investigate...
Objective:
The 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been thoroughly studied for the test characteristics but it is unclear whether '2010 RA' has a different phenotype than '1987 RA' when assessing the severity of the disease course. Therefore this study com...
