FRIDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- The American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism have developed two provisional definitions of remission in rheumatoid arthritis that can be applied uniformly and used as outcome measures in clinical trials, according to an article published in the March issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
David T. Felson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues aimed to devise a definition of remission in rheumatoid arthritis that is stringent (little, if any, active disease) and reflective of the fact that remission has become increasingly achievable. A committee consisting of members of the American College of Rheumatology, the European League Against Rheumatism, and the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Initiative tested candidate definitions and analyzed trial data to examine whether the proposed definitions predicted later good radiographic and functional outcomes.
The researchers defined remission in one of two ways: either tender joint count, swollen joint count (on 28 joint counts), C-reactive protein (in mg/dL), and patient global assessment scores (on a scale of zero to 10) are all less than or equal to one, or a Simplified Disease Activity Index score less than or equal to 3.3.
"We propose two new definitions of remission, both of which can be uniformly applied and widely used in rheumatoid arthritis clinical trials. We recommend that one of these be selected as an outcome measure in each trial and that the results on both be reported for each trial," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. Abbott, Amgen, and Wyeth shared clinical trial data with the committee.
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