Does the presence of magnetic resonance imaging-detected osteitis at diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis lower the risk for achieving disease-modifying antirheumatic drug-free sustained remission: results of a longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

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 RA are largely unknown. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-detected bone marrow edema (BME), or osteitis, strongly predicts erosive progression and is associated with ACPA positivity. Therefore, we hypothesized that the presence of MRI-detected osteitis is also predictive of not achieving DMARD-free sustained remission and that the presence of osteitis mediates the association between ACPA and DMARD-free sustained remission.

Methods

A 1

SUBMITTER: Burgers LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5894211 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature