ArticleRheumatology (Oxford, England)2019
Is joint pain in patients with arthralgia suspicious for progression to rheumatoid arthritis explained by subclinical inflammation? A cross-sectional MRI study.
Article in Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- An ultrasound negative for subclinical synovitis in arthralgia patients: is it helpful in identifying those not developing arthritis?Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Observational
- Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Continuum of Disease and Strategies for Prediction, Early Intervention, and Prevention.The Journal of rheumatology · 2024Review
- Association between traditional Chinese Medicine and osteoarthritis outcome: A 5-year matched cohort study.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Association of Interosseous Tendon Inflammation in the Hand With Different Early Arthritides in a 10-Year Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Hand function is already reduced before RA development and reflects subclinical tenosynovitis.RMD open · 2023Article
- Which inflamed tissues explain a positive metatarsophalangeal squeeze test? A large imaging study to clarify a common diagnostic procedure.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- The autoimmune aetiology of unexplained chronic pain.Autoimmunity reviews · 2022Review
- Current view on the pathogenic role of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis.RMD open · 2021Review
- Preclinical rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis prevention.Current opinion in rheumatology · 2020Review
- Improvement of symptoms in clinically suspect arthralgia and resolution of subclinical joint inflammation: a longitudinal study in patients that did not progress to clinical arthritis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2020Article
- The structure, specificity and function of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Objectives: The development of RA includes a phase of arthralgia preceding clinical arthritis. The aetiology of symptoms of arthralgia is unclear. Since subclinical joint inflammation is expected to be causally related to pain, we aimed to study associations between subclinical MRI-detected inflammation and pain in patients with arthralgia suspicious for progression to RA. Methods: Unilateral MRIs of the wrist, MCP (2-5) and MTP (1-5) joints of 325 patients who fulfilled the EULAR definition of arthralgia suspicious for progression to RA were scored by two readers on subclinical inflammation (synovitis, bone marrow oedema and tenosynovitis). Associations between MRI-detected inflammation and overall pain severity at patient level (measured using the visual analogue scale), as well as with local joint tenderness, were studied. Analyses were stratified for ACPA. Results: At patient level, synovitis (β = 0.10, P = 0.048) and tenosynovitis (β = 0.11, P = 0.026) associated with the visual analogue scale pain. Of the 1620 imaged joints, 447 (28%) were tender. MRI-detected synovitis associated independently with joint tenderness in all patients (odds ratio 1.74, P < 0.001), and in the ACPA-negative stratum (odds ratio 1.96, P < 0.001). In the ACPA-positive stratum only bone marrow oedema (osteitis) was independently associated with tenderness (odds ratio 2.39, P = 0.005). Sensitivity analyses in patients who developed inflammatory arthritis during follow-up (n = 61) revealed similar associations. Subclinical inflammation was present in 51% of tender joints and 39% of non-tender joints. Conclusion: In patients with arthralgia suspicious for progression to RA, MRI-detected subclinical inflammation is associated with overall pain and local joint tenderness. However, the association is partial, indicating that subclinical inflammation is not the sole explanation of the arthralgia.
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