scholarly journals Sex-related differences in clinical characteristics and comorbidities and their impact on clinical outcome in Korean patients with rheumatoid arthritis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seunghwan Shin ◽  
Eun Hye Park ◽  
Eun Ha Kang ◽  
Yun Jong Lee ◽  
Yeong Wook Song ◽  
...  

Abstract Backgrounds: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is more prevalent in women and prior studies have reported several epidemiologic differences between sex and low achievement of remission in women RA. However, these sex differences across various populations remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to elucidate sex-related differences in clinical characteristics and their potential impact on clinical outcome in a large Korean cohort of patients with RA. Methods In total, 5,376 RA patients from the KORean Observational study Network for Arthritis (KORONA) database were examined at baseline and for 3 consecutive years using the disease activity score 28 (DAS28), health assessment questionnaire (HAQ), and health-related outcomes. Within a subgroup with active disease (DAS28 ≥ 3.2) at baseline, sex impacts on clinical outcome during a 3-year period were analyzed using generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. The sex effect on achieving clinical remission was analyzed using Cox-proportional hazard regression. Results At baseline, women (n = 4,574) were younger and had more erosive disease and longer disease duration than men (n = 802) with significantly higher scores in DAS28, HAQ, and patient-reported outcomes. The prevalence of interstitial lung disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes in men was significantly higher than that of women. In a RA subgroup with active disease at baseline, a GEE analysis demonstrated that sex significantly influenced the rate of change of DAS28 (p = 0.035) over time. In that group, men are associated with achieving DAS28 sustained remission as well as point remission (both p < 0.001). Conclusion Most comorbidities were more prevalent in men than in women among Korean patients with RA. However, for RA-related clinical outcomes, the longitudinal change in disease activity and the rate of achieving clinical remission were found to be worse in women RA. Therefore, sex-related differences should be considered when managing RA patients.

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Rannio ◽  
Juha Asikainen ◽  
Arto Kokko ◽  
Pekka Hannonen ◽  
Tuulikki Sokka

Objective.We analyzed remission rates at 3 and 12 months in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were naive for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) and who were treated in a Finnish rheumatology clinic from 2008 to 2011. We compared remission rates and drug treatments between patients with RA and patients with undifferentiated arthritis (UA).Methods.Data from all DMARD-naive RA and UA patients from the healthcare district were collected using software that includes demographic and clinical characteristics, disease activity, medications, and patient-reported outcomes. Our rheumatology clinic applies the treat-to-target principle, electronic monitoring of patients, and multidisciplinary care.Results.Out of 409 patients, 406 had data for classification by the 2010 RA criteria of the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism. A total of 68% were female, and mean age (SD) was 58 (16) years. Respectively, 56%, 60%, and 68% were positive for anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP), rheumatoid factor (RF), and RF/anti-CCP, and 19% had erosive disease. The median (interquartile range) duration of symptoms was 6 (4–12) months. A total of 310 were classified as RA and 96 as UA. The patients with UA were younger, had better functional status and lower disease activity, and were more often seronegative than the patients with RA. The 28-joint Disease Activity Score (3 variables) remission rates of RA and UA patients at 3 months were 67% and 58% (p = 0.13), and at 12 months, 71% and 79%, respectively (p = 0.16). Sustained remission was observed in 57%/56% of RA/UA patients. Patients with RA used more conventional synthetic DMARD combinations than did patients with UA. None used biological DMARD at 3 months, and only 2.7%/1.1% of the patients (RA/UA) used them at 12 months (p = 0.36).Conclusion.Remarkably high remission rates are achievable in real-world DMARD-naive patients with RA or UA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 582.1-582
Author(s):  
S. Pazmino ◽  
A. Lovik ◽  
A. Boonen ◽  
D. De Cock ◽  
V. Stouten ◽  
...  

Background:Commonly used disease activity scores in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) include one patient reported outcome (PRO) -the patient’s global health assessment (PGA). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on data from the 2 year Care in early Rheumatoid Arthritis (CareRA) trial to explain the evolution of disease burden extracting 3 factors.1Objectives:To assess the evolution and relative responsiveness over time of clinical, laboratory and patient assessments included in composite scores, together with other PROs like pain, fatigue and functionality in patients with early RA (≤1 year) treated to target (T2T) within the CareRA trial.Methods:DMARD naïve patients with early RA (n=379) were included, randomized to remission induction with COBRA-like treatment schemes (n=332) or MTX monotherapy (n=47) and T2T.Components of disease activity scores (swollen/tender joint count (S/TJC), C-reactive protein (CRP) or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and physician (PhGH) or patient (PGA) global health assessment), pain and fatigue (both on 0-100 scale) and HAQ were recorded at every visit.Missing data was handled with multiple imputation (n=15). Clustering was removed with multiple outputation (n=1000), then each of the 15 000 datasets was analyzed by EFA with principal component extraction and oblimin rotation. The analyses were combined after re-ordering the factors by maximizing factor congruence. The 3 extracted factors and their individual components (with their loadings) were: 1. Patient containing PGA (0.87), pain (0.86), fatigue (0.90) and HAQ (0.5) 2.Clinical with SJC (0.92), TJC (0.89) and PhGH (0.76) and 3.Laboratory with CRP(0.87) and ESR (0.78).1(Pazmino, ACR 2019 abstract, Table 3)Afterwards, variables were first normalized to a 0-1 scale, then multiplied -weighted- by the factor loadings previously obtained.1For each Patient, Clinical and Laboratory severity score, the weighted variables belonging to each score were summed together and then re-scaled to 0-1 (higher values suggest more burden).The percentage (%) improvement from baseline to week 104 and the area under the curve (AUC) across time points were calculated per factor.Differences in % improvement and AUC were compared between patients not achieving and achieving early and sustained (week 16 to 104) disease activity score remission (DAS28CRP <2.6) with ANOVA. Bonferroni correction was used for multiple testing.Results:Severity scores of Patient, Clinical and Laboratory factors improved rapidly over time (Figure 1). In patients achieving sustained remission (n=122), Patient, Clinical and Laboratory scores improved 56%, 90% and 27% respectively. In patients not achieving sustained remission (n=257) the improvement was 32%, 78% and 9% respectively (p<0.001 only for clinical improvement).Patients in CareRA who achieved sustained remission had an AUC of 15.1, 3.4 and 4.7 in Patient, Clinical and Laboratory scores respectively, compared to 32.3, 10.0, and 7.2 in participants not achieving sustained remission (p<0.001 for all comparisons).Conclusion:Patient, Clinical and Laboratory severity scores improved rapidly over time in patients achieving rapid and sustained disease control. However, overall, Patient burden seemed not to improve to the same extent as Clinical burden. Patient’s unmet needs in terms of pain, fatigue, functionality and overall well-being should thus be given more attention, even in patients in sustained remission.References:[1]Pazmino S,et al.Including Pain, Fatigue and Functionality Regularly in the Assessment of Patients with Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Separately Adds to the Evaluation of Disease Status [abstract]. ACR. 2019.Disclosure of Interests:Sofia Pazmino: None declared, Anikó Lovik: None declared, Annelies Boonen Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Consultant of: Galapagos, Lilly (all paid to the department), Diederik De Cock: None declared, Veerle Stouten: None declared, Johan Joly: None declared, Delphine Bertrand: None declared, Rene Westhovens Grant/research support from: Celltrion Inc, Galapagos, Gilead, Consultant of: Celltrion Inc, Galapagos, Gilead, Speakers bureau: Celltrion Inc, Galapagos, Gilead, Patrick Verschueren Grant/research support from: Pfizer unrestricted chair of early RA research, Speakers bureau: various companies


RMD Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. e000738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet E Pope ◽  
Mohammad Movahedi ◽  
Emmanouil Rampakakis ◽  
Angela Cesta ◽  
John S Sampalis ◽  
...  

Objective(s)This study evaluated the interaction of anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) in predicting sustained clinical response in an observational registry of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) followed in routine practice.MethodsPatients with RA enrolled in the Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative registry, with ≥1 swollen joint, autoantibody information and ≥1 follow-up assessment were included. Sustained clinical remission was defined as Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤2.8 in at least two sequential visits separated by 3–12 months. Time to sustained remission was assessed using cumulative incidence curves and multivariate cox regression.ResultsAmong 3251 patients in the registry, 970 were included, of whom 262 (27%) were ACPAneg/RFneg, 60 (6.2%) ACPApos /RFneg, 117 (12.1%) ACPAneg/RFpos and 531 (54.7%) ACPApos /RFpos at baseline. Significant between group differences were observed in age (p=0.02), CDAI (p=0.03), tender joint count (p=0.02) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (p=0.002), with ACPApos patients being youngest with lowest disease activity and disability. No difference in biologic use was found between groups (20.2% of patients).Over a mean follow-up of 3 years, sustained remission was achieved by 43.5% of ACPApos/RFpos patients, 43.3% of ACPApos /RFneg patients, 31.6 % of ACPAneg/RFpos patients and 32.4% of ACPAneg/RFneg patients (p=0.01). Significant differences were observed in CDAI improvement based on ACPA and RF status where ACPApos/RFpos had a shorter time to achieving sustained remission (HR 1.30; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.67) and experienced significantly higher improvements compared with ACPAneg/RFneg patients.Conclusion(s)Combined ACPA and RF positivity were associated with improved and faster response to antirheumatic medications in patients with RA.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Hügle ◽  
Ulrich A Walker ◽  
Axel Finckh ◽  
Ruediger Mueller ◽  
Gabriel Kalweit ◽  
...  

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) lacks reliable biomarkers that predict disease evolution on an individual basis, potentially leading to over- and undertreatment. Deep neural networks learn from former experiences on a large scale and can be used to predict future events as a potential tool for personalized clinical assistance. Objective: To investigate deep learning for the prediction of individual disease activity in RA. Methods: Demographic and disease characteristics from over 9500 patients and 65.000 visits from the Swiss Quality Management (SCQM) database were used to train and evaluate an adaptive recurrent neural network (AdaptiveNet). Patient and disease characteristics along with clinical and patient reported outcomes, laboratory values and medication were used as input features. DAS28-BSR was used to predict active disease and future numeric individual disease activity by classification and regression, respectively. Results: AdaptiveNet predicted active disease defined as DAS28-BSR>2.6 at the next visit with an overall accuracy of 75.6% and a sensitivity and specificity of 84.2% and 61.5%, respectively. Regression allowed forecasting individual DAS28-BSR values with a mean squared error of 0.9, corresponding to a variation between predicted and true values at next visit of 8%. Apart from DAS28-BSR, the most influential characteristics to predict disease activity were joint pain, disease duration, age and duration of treatment. Longer disease duration, age >50 years or antibody positivity marginally improved prediction performance. Conclusion: Deep neural networks have the capacity to predict individual numeric disease activity in RA. Low specificity remains challenging and might benefit from alternative input data or outcome targets.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1623-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pilar Lisbona ◽  
Anna Pàmies ◽  
Jesús Ares ◽  
Miriam Almirall ◽  
Maria Navallas ◽  
...  

Objective.To evaluate the association of synovitis, bone marrow edema (BME), and tenosynovitis in the progression of erosions quantified by hand magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1 year in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in remission.Methods.A total of 56 of 196 patients with early RA in remission at 1 year and with available MRI data at baseline and at 12 months were included. MRI images were assessed according to the Rheumatoid Arthritis Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scoring (RAMRIS) system. Persistent remission was defined as 28-joint Disease Activity Score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate ≤ 2.6 and/or Simplified Disease Activity Index ≤ 3.3 and/or the new boolean American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism remission criteria for a continuous period of at least 6 months. Progression of bone erosions was defined as an increase of 1 or more units in annual RAMRIS score for erosions compared to baseline.Results.At 1 year, the majority of patients with RA in sustained remission showed some inflammatory activity on MRI (94.6% synovitis, 46.4% BME, and 58.9% tenosynovitis) and 19 of the 56 patients (33.9%) showed MRI progression of bone erosions. A significant difference was observed in MRI BME at 1 year, with higher mean score in patients with progression compared to nonprogression of erosions (4.8 ± 5.6 and 1.4 ± 2.6, p = 0.03).Conclusion.Subclinical inflammation was identified by MRI in 96.4% of patients with RA in sustained clinical remission. Significantly higher scores of BME after sustained remission were observed in patients with progression of erosions compared to patients with no progression. The persistence of higher scores of BME may explain the progression of bone erosions in patients with persistent clinical remission.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1726
Author(s):  
Hanna Gul ◽  
Kate Harnden ◽  
Benazir Saleem

Background: It is now accepted that the optimum treatment goal for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is sustained remission, as this has been shown to be associated with the best patient outcomes. There is little guidance on how to manage patients once remission is achieved; however, it is recommended that patients can taper therapy, with a view to discontinuing and achieving drug-free remission if treatment goals are maintained. This narrative review aims to present the current literature on drug-free remission in rheumatoid arthritis, with a view to identifying which strategies are best for disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) tapering and to highlight areas of unmet clinical need. Methods: We performed a narrative review of the literature, which included research articles, meta-analyses and review papers. The key search terms included were rheumatoid arthritis, remission, drug-free remission, b-DMARDS/biologics, cs-DMARDS and tapering. The databases that were searched included PubMed and Google Scholar. For each article, the reference section of the paper was reviewed to find additional relevant articles. Results: It has been demonstrated that DFR is possible in a proportion of RA patients achieving clinically defined remission (both on cs and b-DMARDS). Immunological, imaging and clinical associations with/predictors of DFR have all been identified, including the presence of autoantibodies, absence of Power Doppler (PD) signal on ultrasound (US), lower disease activity according to composite scores of disease activity and lower patient-reported outcome scores (PROs) at treatment cessation. Conclusions: DFR in RA may be an achievable goal in certain patients. This carries importance in reducing medication-induced side-effects and potential toxicity, the burden of taking treatment if not required and cost effectiveness, specifically for biologic therapy. Prospective studies of objective biomarkers will help facilitate the prediction of successful treatment discontinuation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1099.2-1099
Author(s):  
R. Fakhfakh ◽  
N. El Amri ◽  
K. Baccouche ◽  
H. Zeglaoui ◽  
E. Bouajina

Background:Sustained remission (SR) is an ultimate treatment goal in the management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1) and is associated with better RA prognosis, reflected by the quality of life, physical function and radiographic progression (2).Objectives:To investigate the prevalence and predictors of SR in RA patients.Methods:A longitudinal prospective study of patients with RA. At the inclusion, the patients were in remission DAS28 ESR≤ 2.6 for at least 6 months. A B-mode and power doppler (PD) ultrasound of 42 joints and 20 tendons was performed. Synovial hypertrophy (SH) and tenosynovitis in B-mode and PD were defined and scored from 0 to 3 using the OMERACT. The CDAI, SDAI, Boolean remission criteria, the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and the radiological Sharp score were calculated. Then, the DAS28 erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was evaluated at 6 and 12 months. SR was defined as the persistence of a DAS28 ESR≤2.6 at 6 or 12 months without any change in RA therapy during the follow-up. Unstable remission (UR) was defined either as DAS28 ESR > 2.6 at 6 or 12 months or an increase in RA therapy because of a relapse during the follow-up.Results:At baseline, thirty-seven patients were included. At 6 and 12 months, 28 and 24 patients completed follow-up, respectively. In decreasing order, Boolean remission (92.2%), DAS28ESRremission (85.7%), SDAI remission (85%) and CDAI remission (83.3%) achieved SR at 6 months. At 12 months, SR was found in 100% in Boolean remission, 87.5% in SDAI remission, 86.7% in CDAI remission and in 79.7% in DAS28 ESR remission. At 6 months, only the ESR (17mm/1h in SR versus 32 mm/1h in UR, p=0.04) was associated with SR. The disease duration, remission duration, swollen and tender joints, DAS28ESR, HAQ, rheumatoid factor, radiological Sharp score and ultrasound parameters weren’t associated with SR. At 12 months, the squeeze test (15% in SR vs 80% in UR, P=0.01), the ESR (15 mm/1h in SR versus 30 mm/1h in UR, p=0.03), the Boolean remission (61.1% in SR versus 0% in UR, p=0.04) and the DAS28ESR (mean: 1.8 in SR versus 2.5 in UR, P=0.01) were associated with SR. However, no association was found with radiological Sharp score and ultrasound parameters. On multivariate analysis, the ESR (OR=1.13, CI95%=1.01-1.2, p=0.03) and the Squeeze test (OR=21.3, CI95%=1.7-263, p=0.01) were predictors of SR, at 12 months.Conclusion:At 6 and 12 months, 79.7%-85.7% of patients in DAS28 ESR remission achieved sustained remission, respectively. Boolean and DAS28 ESR remission were associated with SR. Unlike DAS28 ESR, Boolean remission seems to reflect more the SR. The squeeze test and the ESR were predictors’ factor. However, the radiological and the ultrasound parameters didn’t show any association.References:[1]Ajeganova S, Huizinga T. Sustained remission in rheumatoid arthritis: latest evidence and clinical considerations. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2017;9(10):249-62.[2]Xie W, Li J, Zhang X, Sun X, Zhang Z. Sustained clinical remission of rheumatoid arthritis and its predictive factors in an unselected adult Chinese population from 2009 to 2018. Int J Rheum Dis. 2019;22(9):1670-8.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1463.2-1464
Author(s):  
S. Bayat ◽  
K. Tascilar ◽  
V. Kaufmann ◽  
A. Kleyer ◽  
D. Simon ◽  
...  

Background:Recent developments of targeted treatments such as targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs) increase the chances of a sustained low disease activity (LDA) or remission state for patients suffering rheumatoid arthritis (RA). tsDMARDs such as baricitinib, an oral inhibitor of the Janus Kinases (JAK1/JAK2) was recently approved for the treatment of RA with an inadequate response to conventional (cDMARD) and biological (bDMARD) therapy. (1, 2).Objectives:Aim of this study is to analyze the effect of baricitinb on disease activity (DAS28, LDA) in patients with RA in real life, to analyze drug persistance and associate these effects with various baseline characteristics.Methods:All RA patients were seen in our outpatient clinic. If a patient was switched to a baricitinib due to medical reasons, these patients were included in our prospective, observational study which started in April 2017. Clinical scores (SJC/TJC 76/78), composite scores (DAS28), PROs (HAQ-DI; RAID; FACIT), safety parameters (not reported in this abstract) as well as laboratory biomarkers were collected at each visit every three months. Linear mixed effects models for repeated measurements were used to analyze the time course of disease activity, patient reported outcomes and laboratory results. We estimated the probabilities of continued baricitinib treatment and the probabilities of LDA and remission by DAS-28 as well as Boolean remission up to one year using survival analysis and explored their association with disease characteristics using multivariable Cox regression. All patients gave informed consent. The study is approved by the local ethics.Results:95 patients were included and 85 analyzed with available follow-up data until November 2019. Demographics are shown in table 1. Mean follow-up duration after starting baricitinib was 49.3 (28.9) weeks. 51 patients (60%) were on monotherapy. Baricitinib survival (95%CI) was 82% (73% to 91%) at one year. Cumulative number (%probability, 95%CI) of patients that attained DAS-28 LDA at least once up to one year was 67 (92%, 80% to 97%) and the number of patients attaining DAS-28 and Boolean remission were 31 (50%, 34% to 61%) and 12(20%, 9% to 30%) respectively. Median time to DAS-28 LDA was 16 weeks (Figure 1). Cox regression analyses did not show any sufficiently precise association of remission or LDA with age, gender, seropositivity, disease duration, concomitant DMARD use and number of previous bDMARDs. Increasing number of previous bDMARDs was associated with poor baricitinib survival (HR=1.5, 95%CI 1.1 to 2.2) while this association was not robust to adjustment for baseline disease activity. Favorable changes were observed in tender and swollen joint counts, pain-VAS, patient and physician disease assessment scores, RAID, FACIT and the acute phase response.Conclusion:In this prospective observational study, we observed high rates of LDA and DAS-28 remission and significant improvements in disease activity and patient reported outcome measurements over time.References:[1]Keystone EC, Taylor PC, Drescher E, Schlichting DE, Beattie SD, Berclaz PY, et al. Safety and efficacy of baricitinib at 24 weeks in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to methotrexate. Annals of the rheumatic diseases. 2015 Feb;74(2):333-40.[2]Genovese MC, Kremer J, Zamani O, Ludivico C, Krogulec M, Xie L, et al. Baricitinib in Patients with Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis. The New England journal of medicine. 2016 Mar 31;374(13):1243-52.Figure 1.Cumulative probability of low disease activity or remission under treatment with baricitinib.Disclosure of Interests:Sara Bayat Speakers bureau: Novartis, Koray Tascilar: None declared, Veronica Kaufmann: None declared, Arnd Kleyer Consultant of: Lilly, Gilead, Novartis,Abbvie, Speakers bureau: Novartis, Lilly, David Simon Grant/research support from: Else Kröner-Memorial Scholarship, Novartis, Consultant of: Novartis, Lilly, Johannes Knitza Grant/research support from: Research Grant: Novartis, Fabian Hartmann: None declared, Susanne Adam: None declared, Axel Hueber Grant/research support from: Novartis, Lilly, Pfizer, EIT Health, EU-IMI, DFG, Universität Erlangen (EFI), Consultant of: Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Gilead, GSK, Lilly, Novartis, Speakers bureau: GSK, Lilly, Novartis, Georg Schett Speakers bureau: AbbVie, BMS, Celgene, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Roche and UCB


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 524.3-525
Author(s):  
M. Patanè ◽  
L. Carmisciano ◽  
E. Hysa ◽  
E. Gotelli ◽  
A. Signori ◽  
...  

Background:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term, progressive, and disabling autoimmune disease1. The disease activity can be quantified by the Disease Activity Score 28-joint count – C reactive protein (DAS28crp)2; the evaluation of disability function (DF) is actually mainly performed only by subjective Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) like Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)3; to investigate the functional aspects of RA hands it is usually used the grip strength (GS)4. However, in the scientific literature no tool, which objectively evaluates movement speed, has been reported. The Hand Test System (HTS, ETT) is an engineered glove (RAGLOVE), nowadays applied for neuroscience studies to evaluate hand motility5Objectives:To objectively evaluate the RA hand’s speed of the fine movements, through the HTS and to compared with a group of age and sex matched healthy controls. To verify the correspondence with the HAQ, DAS28, GS.Methods:55 consecutives RA patients (pts) (6 males, age 61 ± 16 years, mean duration of disease 12 ± 8 years), classified according to 2010 ACR/EULAR criteria6, and 50 matched healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. After consent, all participants undergone HTS test that recognizes the touches between the finger tips during the opposition movements of the hands in standard sequences of movements, after dressed the glove. A multiple finger evaluation (MFE) and a single finger evaluation (SFE) were performed using a dedicated software that provided the physician the following quantitative parameters: Touch Duration (TD), Inter Tapping Interval (ITI) and Movement Rate (MR). Average time for hand 2 minutes. RA pts compiled the HAQ, performed the GS and a DAS28cpr was performed.The student’s t-test was used to compare the glove’s parameters between the groups whereas the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to verify potential differences between the populations. In order to evaluate the single correlations, the r and p values of Pearson were employed.Results:For MFE, glove parameters TD and ITI were significantly higher in RA pts than HCs, whereas; MR was significantly lower in RA pts compared to HCs (all p <0.001).For SFE non-affected fingers (not swollen and not tender) of RA pts performed better than a clinically affected fingers, but in any case significantly worse than average HCs fingers (p < 0.001).There is a statistically significant correlation between the GS and MR (r= 0.39 p=0.003) and TD (r=-0.33 p=0.015).TD, ITI e MR of RA pts showed a significant correlation with the total score of the HAQ (r = 0.56, r = 0.39, r = -0.56, all p < 0.001;). DAS28, considered as a continuous variable, proved to be significantly correlated with the TD (r = 0.36, p = 0.009). When the RA patients were grouped according to the disease activity by DAS28cpr7, there was an increase of one third of the TD’s logarithm for each increase in the activity class (linear regression with ordinal predictors, beta = 0.33; 95%CI 0.03, 0.63,p < 0.0297). Finally, even RA pts in remission showed a TD significantly higher compared with HCs (p= 0.034).Conclusion:The RAGLOVE is shown as a new safe and fast tool to evaluate a new objective parameter in the hand’s functionality: the speed of finger movements. In RA pts, an inversely proportional correlation emerges between the speed of movement and disease activity.The significant correlation found with HAQ, highlights the loss of motility of the hands as one of the main determinant of disability. The RAGLOVE is now tested in RA patients undergoing treatment.References:[1]Hakkinen et al Ann Rheum Dis. 2005;[2]Van Der Heijde et al J of Rheum. 1993;[3]Fries et al Arthritis Rheum. 1980;[4]Mathiowetz et al J Hand Surg Am. 1984;[5]Carmisciano et al Eur J Neurol. 2020;[6]Aletaha et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010;[7]Aletaha et al Arthritis Rheum 2005.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


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