Radiologic Signs of Joint Healing Can Be Accurately Identified in RA Patients

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Radiologic Signs of Joint Healing Can Be Accurately Identified in RA Patients

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 07 - In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients

followed for many years, signs of joint healing can be accurately identified on

standard radiographs, according to a recent report by German investigators.

Emphasis is often placed on radiologic signs of disease progression in RA

patients, and the ability to identify disease improvement is expected to become

increasingly important as new rapidly acting antirheumatic drugs become

available. In the current study, Dr. R. Rau, from Evangelisches Fachkrankenhaus

in Ratingen, and colleagues wanted to determine if radiologic signs of RA joint

healing could be identified by different observers in a blinded fashion.

Three physicians reviewed 24 sets of joint radiographs with healing phenomena

and 10 with progressive disease without healing, taken 2 to 8 years apart. The

films were read in pairs in random order. Signs of healing included reappearance

of the cortical plate, filling in of an erosion, and subchondral bone sclerosis

with osteophyte formation.

Of 1292 joints assessed, 74 demonstrated evidence of healing. On average, these

joints were identified 89% of the time by the three physicians. All physicians

correctly identified joints without signs of healing, the authors state in the

December issue of the Journal of Rheumatology.

Radiologic signs of healing can be observed in RA patients followed for several

years. " These phenomena can be identified by different observers with high

sensitivity even when the observers are blinded to chronological sequence of the

films, " the researchers conclude.

J Rheumatol 2001;28:2608-2615