Observational studyArthritis care & research2018
Association Between Pain Sensitization and Disease Activity in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Observational study in Arthritis care & research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT05177120 (Central Sensitization in Familial Mediterranean Fever), which is not on this map. Cited by 51 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Central Sensitization in Familial Mediterranean Fever: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- Concomitant fibromyalgia complicating chronic inflammatory arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2018Pooled it
- Beyond Synovitis: Molecular and Neuroimmune Mechanisms Informing Target-Joint Attribution and Pain Phenotyping for Arthroplasty in Inflammatory Arthritis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Decoding pain in axial spondyloarthritis: Mechanisms, management, and future directions.Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology · 2026Review
- The Painful Truth: The Relationship Between Nonarticular Pain and Patient Global Assessment Before and After Initiating a New Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug for Active Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Psychosocial and behavioral correlates of persistent pain post disease-modifying treatment change in rheumatoid arthritis: a 12-month cohort study.Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Joint-brain communication in rheumatoid arthritis: glial mechanisms, pain phenotypes, and translational evidence.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Gut dysbiosis in difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis: hypothesized microbial endotypes, persistent inflammation, and pharmacological treatment resistance.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Assessment of Pain Types in Recently Diagnosed Patients With Inflammatory Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Prevalence of Pain and Factors Associated With Pain in Patients With Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Beyond Inflammation: Why Understanding the Brain Matters in Inflammatory Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Review
- Association Between Discordance of Disease Activity Indices and Quantitative Sensory Testing Measures of Nociplastic Pain in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Quantitative Sensory Testing Reveals Evidence of Altered Pain Processing in Paget's Disease of Bone.Calcified tissue international · 2025Article
- Associations Between Changes in Pain Sensitization and Disease Activity Following Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Therapy in Established Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Altered somatosensory profiles in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and systemic sclerosis.EULAR rheumatology open · 2025Article
- How Do Fear-Avoidance and Catastrophizing Pain Beliefs Affect Functional Status and Disease Activity in Axial Spondyloarthritis?Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Observational
- Disruptions in cortical circuit connectivity distinguish widespread hyperalgesia from localized pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- How to Distinguish Non-Inflammatory from Inflammatory Pain in RA?Current rheumatology reports · 2024Review
- Value of the central sensitisation inventory in patients with axial spondyloarthritis.RMD open · 2024Article
- From fibrositis to fibromyalgia to nociplastic pain: how rheumatology helped get us here and where do we go from here?Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2024Review
- Contribution of inflammation markers and quantitative sensory testing (QST) indices of central sensitisation to rheumatoid arthritis pain.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedErratum.2020
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePain sensitization may contribute to pain severity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), impacting disease activity assessment. We examined whether pain processing mechanisms were associated with disease activity among RA patients with active disease.
methodsThe study included 139 subjects enrolled in the Central Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis cohort. Subjects underwent quantitative sensory testing (QST), including assessment of pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) at multiple sites, conditioned pain modulation, and temporal summation. RA disease activity was assessed using the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and its components. We examined cross-sectional associations between QST measures and disease activity using linear regression.
resultsLow PPTs (high pain sensitization) at all sites were associated with high CDAI scores (P ≤ 0.03) and tender joint counts (P ≤ 0.002). Associations between PPTs and patient global assessments were also seen at most sites. High temporal summation at the forearm (also reflecting high pain sensitization) was significantly associated with high CDAI scores (P = 0.02), patient global assessment scores (P = 0.0006), evaluator global assessment scores (P = 0.01), and tender joint counts (P = 0.02). Conversely, conditioned pain modulation (a measure of descending inhibitory pain pathways) was associated only with tender joint count (P = 0.03).
conclusionHigh pain sensitization is associated with elevations in disease activity measures. Longitudinal studies are underway to elucidate the cause-effect relationships between pain sensitization and inflammatory disease activity in RA.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.