Remission and rheumatoid arthritis: Data on patients receiving usual care in twenty‐four countries

Abstract

, 23 for the Questionnaires in Standard Monitoring of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Group Objective. To compare the performance of different definitions of remission in a large multinational cross-sectional cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. The Questionnaires in Standard Monitoring of Patients with RA (QUEST-RA) database, which (as of January 2008) included 5,848 patients receiving usual care at 67 sites in 24 countries, was used for this study. Patients were clinically assessed by rheumatologists and completed a 4-page self-report questionnaire. The database was analyzed according to the following definitions of remission: American College of Rheumatology (ACR) definition, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28), Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), clinical remission assessed using 42 and 28 joints (Clin42 and Clin28), patient self-report Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3), and physician report of no disease activity (MD remission). Results. The overall remission rate was lowest

Synovial tissue research: a state-of-the-art review

“…While it is true that the last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented, if qualified, success in treating RA, a substantial portion of patients still do not achieve low disease activity or remission. 5,6 The main challenges in biomedicine and translational research in RA focus on early diagnosis, personalised medicine, and the development of meaningful outcome assessments. 7 It is logical to hypothesise that each of these aims can be facilitated by the identification and development of appropriate biomarkers.…”

Assessment of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Clinical Care

“…Among >6.000 patients, women had higher scores than men for all ACR core data set measures. Overall, 30% of men and 17% of women were in DAS 28 remission (92,98). Differences in remission rates were most pronounced in patients who had no swollen joints: many fewer women than men (42% vs. 58%) met DAS 28 remission.…”

“…By June 2009, the program enrolled 8,039 patients from 86 sites in 32 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States (98).…”

“…QUEST-RA provides data on current clinical status, disease activity, and patient reported health in many countries (59,(92)(93)(94)(95)(98)(99)(100) and serves as an example of the value of data collection in individual clinics. Some observations from QUEST-RA will be reviewed here.…”

“…The issue of possible effects of gender on disease activity at levels close to remission has emerged at this time, when patient clinical status is improved compared to earlier decades, due to better treatment strategies and biologic agents (106). Remissions are seen more frequently than earlier decades, although influenced by definition used (98,107). Some studies suggest that male gender is a major predictor of remission in early RA (108,109) and some others that men have better responses to treatments with biologic agents than women (110)(111)(112).…”