Rheumatoid Arthritis in Remission Clinical Trial
Official title:
Value of Ultrasound for Evaluating Rheumatoid Arthritis in Remission: Longitudinal Study
The objective of this study is to determine the longitudinal relation between clinical
remission and ultrasound (US) remission in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
At a patient level, US-detected residual synovitis (evaluated both by US grey-scale signals
and power Doppler signals) is frequent in patients with RA in clinical remission. Several
longitudinal studies reveal an association of US-detected residual synovitis and risk of
relapse and radiographic progression, in individual patients and joints, over 1-2 years.
However, the longitudinal relation between clinical remission and US remission is not so
well-known and it is possible that clinical remission arrive before ultrasound remission.
Thus arise the question as to whether the presence of US-detected residual synovitis require
to adapt the treatment to ultrasound findings or to simply increase the patient care.
The investigator propose to conduct a prospective, bi-center, non randomized study.
The study population will include all RA patient at least 18 years old in clinical remission
for less than 6 month.
The primary endpoint (ability of US-detected residual synovitis to predict relapse or
radiographic progression in individual patients and joints) will be evaluated afer 12 months
of follow-up The total follow-up will be 12 months with a follow-up every 3 months. In
addition to the standard care, each follow-up will include an ultrasound examination of 40
joints and 8 tendons
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