Rheumatoid arthritis

Classifying individuals with musculoskeletal symptoms and no clinical synovitis using anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody levels and self-reported hand or foot pain may be useful to prioritize rheumatology referrals, study findings indicate.

People with rheumatoid arthritis still have a substantial excess risk for acute myocardial infarction relative to the general population even though rates have fallen in both groups in recent years, Canadian research shows.

The overall incidence of rheumatoid arthritis during 2005–2014 was similar that of earlier decades, but the rates of RF-negative disease have increased substantially with time, US study data show.

Almost 20 million people worldwide were living with rheumatoid arthritis in 2017, with over a million new cases diagnosed each year, according to estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study.

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Tung CH et al. BMJ Open 2018; 8: e021747. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021747

Luiz APL et al. Clin Rheumatol 2018. doi: 10.1007/s10067-018-4200-5

Subesinghe S et al. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2018: key198. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/key198