How do French rheumatologists treat early rheumatoid arthritis?

Although factors that appear to predict long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis have been identified, there is no consensus about the treatment early in the disease. To determine how French office- and hospital-based rheumatologists treat early rheumatoid arthritis, we created three clinical vignettes corresponding to different levels of severity of early rheumatoid arthritis (less than six months' disease duration). Cases 1 and 2 were relatively young patients (35 and 50 years), and Case 1 had numerous poor prognosis factors.