EULAR/ACR risk stratification criteria for development of rheumatoid arthritis in the risk stage of arthralgia

  • Hanna W. van Steenbergen
  • , Frank Doornkamp
  • , Stefano Alivernini
  • , John Backlund
  • , Catalin Codreanu
  • , Stanley B. Cohen
  • , Bernard Combe
  • , Andrew P. Cope
  • , Kevin D. Deane
  • , Bryant R. England
  • , Marie Falahee
  • , Pascal H.P. de Jong
  • , Arnd Kleyer
  • , Diane Lacaille
  • , Bertha Maat
  • , Kulveer Mankia
  • , Elise van Mulligen
  • , György Nagy
  • , Liam J. O'Neill
  • , Linda Rodamaker
  • Ilfita Sahbudin, Dirkjan van Schaardenburg, Alexandre Sepriano, Jose A.P. da Silva, Lukas De Smet, Jeffrey A. Sparks, Ewout W. Steyerberg, Paul Studenic, Elisabeth Wethingtone, Robert L. Landewe, Karim Raza, Annette H.M. van der Helm-van Mil*
*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Objectives: The field of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is moving towardsidentification of and intervention in people at risk of RA, but a validatedrisk stratification method is lacking. This work was undertaken to develop arisk stratification method for persons presenting with arthralgia considered tobe at risk of RA.

Methods: A joint European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology(EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) expert committee wasestablished. Risk factor and outcome data from 10 arthralgia cohorts (includingclinically suspect arthralgia and autoantibody-positive arthralgia) werestudied. The work focused on differentiating the risk of progression toclinically apparent inflammatory arthritis (IA) within 1 year, using clinicaland serologic variables, without and with subclinical joint inflammation detectedby ultrasound (US) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Developing RA accordingto the 2010 EULAR/ACR criteria within 1 year was a secondary outcome. A set ofvalidated risk stratification criteria was developed.

Results: Using data from 2293 symptomatic at-risk individuals, astratification method was derived consisting of 6 clinical and serologicvariables (morning stiffness, patient-reported joint swelling, difficultymaking a fist, C-reactive protein, rheumatoid factor, and anti-citrullinatedpeptide antibody) yielding an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.80 (95% CI,0.77-0.83) for IA development. The inclusion of US variables did not increasethe discriminative ability. When MRI-detected subclinical inflammation variableswere included, the AUC was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.82-0.90). In the presence ofclinical, serologic, and MRI variables, a sensitivity and specificity of>75% was achieved. For RA development, the AUC of the criteria with MRI was0.93 (95% CI, 0.90-0.97).

Conclusions: EULAR/ACR risk stratification criteria have been developedfor people with arthralgia in secondary care who are considered at risk for RA.They can be applied in the absence or presence of imaging data and have beendeveloped to define homogeneous risk groups for future prevention trials.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases
Early online date8 May 2025
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 8 May 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier B.V.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Rheumatology
  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

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