Trial reportRheumatology (Oxford, England)2025
Long-term clinical outcomes in early rheumatoid arthritis that was treated-to-target in the BeSt and IMPROVED studies.
Trial report in Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of symptom duration on the short- and long-term efficacy of bimekizumab in axial spondyloarthritis: results up to 2 years.Arthritis research & therapy · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Global burden and inequalities of rheumatoid arthritis in adults aged 15-49 years from 1990 to 2021 and projections to 2050: a cross-sectional analysis from Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Article
- Article
- Efficacy and Safety of Biologic and Targeted Synthetic DMARDs in Young-Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Health-related quality of life among people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in Cyprus: a cross-sectional study of disease burden and time since diagnosis.BMC rheumatology · 2026Article
- Five-year radiographic and clinical outcomes after arthroscopic synovectomy of the ankle in rheumatoid arthritis: A clinical trial.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2025Observational
- Structural and Functional Outcomes in Rheumatoid Arthritis After 10-Year Therapy with Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs Under Tight Control: Evidence from Real-World Cohort Data.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Survival Outcomes and Prognostic Factors in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Receiving Biologic or Targeted Synthetic Therapy: Real-World Data.Antibodies (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo assess disease outcomes after 20 and 12 years of patients with RA or undifferentiated arthritis (UA), treated-to-target in the BeSt and IMPROVED trials.
methodsIn BeSt (inclusion 2000-02, duration 10 years), 508 patients with early RA were randomized to: 1. sequential monotherapy, 2. step-up combination therapy, 3. initial csDMARD combination therapy, 4. initial bDMARD/csDMARD combination therapy. The treatment target was low disease activity (DAS ≤ 2.4).In IMPROVED (inclusion 2007-10, duration 5 years), 610 patients with early RA/UA started MTX with prednisone bridging. The treatment target was remission (DAS < 1.6). Patients not in early remission were randomized to 1. csDMARD combination therapy or 2. bDMARD/csDMARD combination therapy.Between 2019 and 22, these patients were invited for long-term follow-up.
resultsOne-hundred-fifty-three ex-Best and 282 ex-IMPROVED patients participated in the follow-up study after a median of 12 and 20 years since the study started.In ex-BeSt and ex-IMPROVED patients, the rate of low disease activity was 91%, and 68% were in DAS remission. Median SHS was 14.0 in ex-BeSt (IQR 6.0-32.5; progression since end BeSt 6.0, IQR 2.0-12.5) and 8 in ex-IMPROVED participants (IQR 3-16; progression since end IMPROVED 4, IQR 2-9). Mean HAQ was 0.8 ± 0.6 in ex-BeSt (change since end BeSt: 0.3 ± 0.5) and 0.6 ± 0.6 in ex-IMPROVED participants (change since end IMPROVED: 0.06 ± 0.5).
conclusionAt 12/20 years after treatment started, the majority of RA and UA patients who had been treated to target low DAS or DAS remission were in DAS remission and had limited functional disability. Radiographic damage progression was mild although not completely suppressed.
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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.