BAFF and TACI gene expression are increased in patients with untreated very early rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: B cells play important roles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Given the beneficial effect of B cell depletion therapy in RA as well as the observed alterations in B cell subpopulations in this disease, we evaluated whether changes in the expression of genes related to B cell survival and activation were already present in patients with untreated very early RA (VERA; < 6 weeks of disease duration).

Methods: The expression of a group of B cell-related activation and survival genes was quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with VERA by real-time PCR and compared with untreated early RA (< 1 year), established treated RA, and other untreated early arthritis conditions.

Bilateral evaluation of the hand and wrist in untreated early inflammatory arthritis: a comparative study of ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Objective: To compare Doppler ultrasound (US) and 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (3.0-T MRI) findings of synovial inflammation in the tendons and joints in an early polyarthritis cohort (patients who presented < 1 year after arthritis onset) using a bilateral hand and wrist evaluation.

Bilateral MR imaging of the hand and wrist in early and very early inflammatory arthritis: tenosynovitis is associated with progression to rheumatoid arthritis.

Purpose: To identify bilateral hand and wrist findings of synovial inflammation associated with progression to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in very-early-RA cohort (VERA) (duration, <3 months) and early-RA cohort (ERA) (duration, <12 but >3 months), to test tenosynovitis as a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging additional parameter for improving diagnostic accuracy of the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) RA classification criteria, and to evaluate the symmetry of joint and tendon involvement.

Materials And Methods: With institutional review board approval and informed consent, 32 women and three men (mean age, 45 years) with untreated recent-onset inflammatory arthritis participated in this prospective study and underwent MR imaging of both wrists and hands. After 12-month follow-up, 25 patients fulfilled the criteria for RA (10 VERA and 15 ERA patients).

Dynamic contrast-enhanced 3-T magnetic resonance imaging: a method for quantifying disease activity in early polyarthritis.

Objective: To determine whether measurement of synovial enhancement and thickness quantification parameters with 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (3-T MRI) can reliably quantify disease activity in patients with early polyarthritis.

Materials And Methods: Eighteen patients (16 women, 2 men; mean age 46 years) with early polyarthritis with less than 12 months of symptoms were included.