Incidence and predictors of severe extra-articular disease manifestations in an early rheumatoid arthritis inception cohort.

摘要

There are limited data on extra-arlicular disease from the long-term follow-up of rheumatoid arthritis inception studies. In the Lund early rheumatoid arthritis prospective study1 consecutive patients with definite rheumatoid arthritis (symptom duration <24months) were included from 1985 to 1989 [N - 183; 116 women, 67 men; mean age 51.2 (SD 12.4) years; mean duration of symptoms 11.1 (SD 6.1) months]. Patients with active disease were offered treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs throughout the study according to general clinical practice, which changed during the study period.