Clinical activity after 12 weeks of treatment with nonbiologics in early rheumatoid arthritis may predict articular destruction 2 years later.

Objective: To investigate earlier prediction of future articular destruction in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: We randomly allocated patients with RA with disease duration < 2 years to different nonbiologic disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapies in a double-blind trial. Progression of articular destruction over the 96-week treatment period was assessed using the modified Sharp method.