Presence of significant synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis patients with disease‐modifying antirheumatic drug–induced clinical remission: Evidence from an imaging study may explain structural progression

Abstract Objective More timely and effective therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has contributed to increasing rates of clinical remission. However, progression of structural damage may still occur in patients who have satisfied remission criteria, which suggests that there is ongoing disease activity. This questions the validity of current methods of assessing remission in RA. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that modern joint imaging improves the accuracy of remission measurement in RA. Methods We studied 107 RA patients receiving disease‐modifying antirheumatic drug therapy who were judged by their consultant rheumatologist to be in remission and 17 normal control subjects. Patients…