Rheumatoid Arthritis: Fresh Findings

Long-term outcomes improve in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with autoantibodies, stated new research published this week in PLOS Medicine by Xanthe Matthijssen of Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands, and colleagues.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that RA with and without autoantibodies are two distinct conditions.

‘A new study adds a growing body of evidence that rheumatoid arthritis with and without autoantibodies are two distinct conditions.’

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common type of autoimmune arthritis. There are differences in RA patients with and without RA-associated autoantibodies detectable in their blood.

Between 1993 and 2016, researchers followed 1,285 RA patients through the Leiden Early Arthritis Clinic cohort. Data on patients' symptoms, treatments, autoantibody status, disability, and mortality were collected annually.

823 patients had autoantibody-positive RA, and 462 patients had autoantibody-negative RA. In both groups, disease activity reduced significantly over time.

Sustained drug-free remission rates increased, as a new treat-to-target treatment strategy became common in patients with autoantibody-positive, but not autoantibody-negative, RA.

"The disconnection between improvement in disease activity and subsequent improvement in long-term outcomes in RA without autoantibodies suggests that the underlying pathogenesis of RA with and without autoantibodies is different," the authors say. "We propose that it is time to formally divide RA into type 1, with autoantibodies, and type 2, without autoantibodies, in the hope that it leads to stratified treatment in autoantibody-positive and autoantibody-negative RA." Dr. Matthijssen.

Foods that can Help Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms

• Fatty fishes like salmon, tuna, etc
• Whole grains
• Fruits and vegetables
• Beans and nuts
• Olive oil

Source: Medindia