Early rheumatoid arthritis treated with tocilizumab, methotrexate, or their combination (U-Act-Early): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, strategy trial.

Background: For patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, treatment aim is early, rapid, and sustained remission. We compared the efficacy and safety of strategies initiating the interleukin-6 receptor-blocking monoclonal antibody tocilizumab with or without methotrexate (a conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug [DMARD]), versus initiation of methotrexate monotherapy in line with international guidelines.

Methods: We did a 2-year, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, strategy study at 21 rheumatology outpatient departments in the Netherlands.

Determining the Lowest Optimally Effective Methotrexate Dose for Individual RA Patients Using Their Dose Response Relation in a Tight Control Treatment Approach.

Objective: To determine the optimal methotrexate dose in individual patients and to explore whether this optimal dose and the level of disease activity at that dose could be predicted.

Methods: Data from CAMERA II trial comparing MTX and MTX with 10 mg of prednisone both in a tight control treatment strategy in early RA was used. For each patient a curve for disease activity over time was fitted and the MTX dose after which further step-up did not result in relevant improvement in disease activity anymore was determined the 'lowest optimally effective MTX dose (LOED)'.

Intra-articular glucocorticoid injections decrease the number of steroid hormone receptor positive cells in synovial tissue of patients with persistent knee arthritis.

Objectives: To explore changes in the number of steroid hormone receptor positive cells in synovial tissue (ST) after intra-articular glucocorticoid injection, to correlate these changes with changes in clinical variables, and to evaluate whether the number of steroid hormone receptor positive cells predicted the clinical response to glucocorticoid injection.

Methods: Fourteen patients with persistent knee arthritis despite at least two previous injections in an outpatient setting received an intra-articular injection with glucocorticoids, followed by 3 days of admission with bed rest. Clinical efficacy was assessed at 6 and 12 weeks.

The relation between cartilage biomarkers (C2C, C1,2C, CS846, and CPII) and the long-term outcome of rheumatoid arthritis patients within the CAMERA trial.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum biomarker levels of C2C, C1,2C, CS846, and CPII can predict the long-term course of disease activity and radiographic progression early in the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: In patients in the CAMERA trial, levels of biomarkers were evaluated at baseline and after 1 year of treatment. Relations of (changes in) biomarker values with the mean yearly radiographic progression rate and mean disease activity over a 5-year period were evaluated by using regression analysis.

Can simple ultrasonography predict the clinical effect of intra-articular injection therapy of the knee joint?

To investigate whether ultrasonographic joint assessment can predict the clinical response to intra-articular injection therapy of the knee. Patients with persistent gonarthritis intra-articularly received in a randomized double-blinded crossover fashion radiation synovectomy or a glucocorticoid injection, both followed by clinical bed rest. Prior to treatment and 3 months afterwards, grey-scale ultrasonography (US) of the knee was performed, measuring synovial thickness and extent of effusion.