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UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Internal MedicineDepartment of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2011-08-01Keywords
Antirheumatic AgentsArthritis, Rheumatoid
Arthrography
Clinical Trials as Topic
Female
Health Status
Humans
Joints
Male
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Pain Measurement
Patient Satisfaction
Quality of Life
Recovery of Function
Remission Induction
Treatment Outcome
Musculoskeletal Diseases
Rheumatology
Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
As very effective targeted biological therapies have become available to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), remission is now the goal of treatment. Since 1981, efforts have been undertaken to develop criteria for clinical remission in RA. Although several different measures of disease activity have been proposed, many issues remain unresolved. Active joint inflammation, even if involving only a few joints, negatively impacts a patient's quality of life and may ultimately result in structural damage. Thus, a low disease activity state (LDAS), which has been adopted as the target in clinical trials of 'treat to target', may not be the optimal treatment target in clinical practice. Similarly, the definitions of remission used in clinical trials may not be appropriate for use in daily clinical practice because some allow for the presence of several tender and swollen joints. Measures of disease activity do not necessarily correlate with structural remission, which implies halting progression of radiographic evidence of damage over time. Because no single measure of RA disease activity fully quantifies the global burden of disease, rheumatologists must follow multiple parameters to assess disease activity thoroughly and to adjust treatment optimally.Source
Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2011 Aug;25(4):497-507. doi: 10.1016/j.berh.2011.10.007. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1016/j.berh.2011.10.007Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/48759PubMed ID
22137920Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.berh.2011.10.007