Progressive and nonprogressive rheumatoid arthritis over a 10-year period in Japan.

We followed 207 patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were registered at our hospital over a 10-year period from between 1989 and 1990. The number of patients who were still treated at our hospital in 2001 was 87. Sixty patients had died, 39 had changed hospitals, 11 had interrupted treatment, and 10 had not had further followup. The patients at our hospital in 2001 were divided into 2 groups: progressive and nonprogressive disease. We compared clinical and laboratory data obtained for the 2 groups from the initial examination against data obtained from the final examination. The progressive group had a greater number of operations, used a greater variety of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, and received higher dosages of steroids than the nonprogressive group. In the progressive group the levels of C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and IgG were significantly higher, while the levels of hemoglobin were lower at final laboratory examination. However, the initial laboratory examination revealed no significant differences between these groups that could be used to predict the likely progression of disease.