L. B. A. Van De Putte

TL;DR: The Modified DAS that included 28-joint counts were able to discriminate between high and low disease activity (as indicated by clinical decisions of rheumatologists) and are as valid as disease activity scores that include more comprehensive joint counts.

TL;DR: EULAR response criteria showed better construct and discriminant validity than did the ACR and the WHO/ILAR response criteria for RA and the World Health Organization and International League Against Rheumatism criteria.

TL;DR: It is shown that autoantibodies reactive with synthetic peptides containing the unusual amino acid citrulline, a posttranslationally modified arginine residue, are specifically present in the sera of RA patients, and the presence of these antibodies early in disease, even before other disease manifestations occur, are indicative for a possible role of citrulling epitopes in the pathogenesis of RA.

TL;DR: An investigation of clinical and laboratory variables which might form the basis for judging disease activity in clinical practice was made by six rheumatologists in a prospective study of up to three years' duration of 113 patients with early r heumatoid arthritis.

TL;DR: The data show that in almost 70% of RA patients, anti-CCP antibody is present at the early stages of disease, and patients with anti- CCP-positive patients developed significantly more severe radiologic damage than patients who were anti- CCP negative.