ArticleArthritis research & therapy2020
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.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Determining in which pre-arthritis stage HLA-shared epitope alleles and smoking exert their effect on the development of rheumatoid arthritis.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Subclinical inflammation and early pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases: mechanistic insights relevant to primary care.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Review
- Protective and Pathogenic Antibodies to Citrullinated Antigens.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Serum Proteomic Signatures of Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk and Response: Analysis of a Rheumatoid Arthritis Interception Trial.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Preclinical Rheumatoid Arthritis: Pathogenesis, Risk Stratification, and Therapeutic Interception.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- The natural course of health-related quality of life in patients with clinically suspect arthralgia: a longitudinal study in progressors and non-progressors to rheumatoid arthritis.Rheumatology international · 2025Article
- Rheumatoid arthritis prevention in arthralgia: fantasy or reality?Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- The Natural Sequence in Which Subclinical Inflamed Joint Tissues Subside or Progress to Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Study of Serial MRIs in the TREAT EARLIER Trial.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Sequential ultrasound in arthralgia patients at risk for inflammatory arthritis: is it of added value in risk stratification?Scandinavian journal of rheumatology · 2023Article
- The course of fatigue during the development of rheumatoid arthritis and its relation with inflammation: a longitudinal study.Joint bone spine · 2022Article
- Work participation is reduced during the development of RA, months before clinical arthritis manifests.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Subclinical synovitis in arthralgia: how often does it result in clinical arthritis? Reflecting on starting points for disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug treatment.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Identifying 'non-progressors' among patients with arthralgia.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2020Article
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4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionArthralgia and MRI-detected subclinical inflammation can precede the development of clinically evident rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, part of the patients presenting with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA) do not progress to RA. In these 'non-progressors', we aimed to study the frequencies of spontaneous improvement of arthralgia and its relation with the course of subclinical inflammation.
methodsBetween April 2012 and April 2015, 241 patients were considered at risk for RA based on the clinical presentation and included in the CSA cohort. One hundred fifty-two patients with complete data on clinical follow-up did not develop clinical arthritis, of which 98 underwent serial 1.5T MRI scans (wrist, MCP2-5, and MTP1-5 joints) at baseline and after 2 years. MRI scans were scored for synovitis, tenosynovitis, and bone marrow oedema (summed: MRI inflammation score). MRI scores were compared to scores of symptom-free persons.
resultsAfter a 2-year follow-up, 33% of the 'non-progressors' had complete resolution of symptoms; 67% had no symptom resolution and were diagnosed as persistent CSA (44%), osteoarthritis (10%), and tendinomuscular complaints (13%). With symptom-free controls as a reference, patients without resolution did not have increased MRI scores at any time point. However, patients achieving resolution of symptoms had increased MRI inflammation scores at baseline (4.0 vs. 2.6, p = 0.037), but not after 2 years (3.0 vs. 2.6; p = 0.57), and during follow-up, their MRI inflammation score decreased significantly (p = 0.036).
conclusionsA subgroup of CSA patients that did not progress to RA had spontaneous improvement of symptoms and resolution of subclinical joint inflammation. This time relationship suggests that symptoms and inflammation were causally related in these patients. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms underlying the resolution of inflammation.
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