ACR remission criteria and response criteria

As additional DMARDs have been added to the armamentarium of rheumatologists over the last 60 years, the approach to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has changed. Many clinical studies now are geared toward evaluating the concept of eradicating inflammation as a method to seek the elusive goal of sustained remission in RA. One of the first descriptions of remission in 'RA' was by Short et al in 1948, when he documented the natural progression of the disease. Since that time, various criteria have been developed to define RA remission utilizing clinical, radiographic, and laboratory measures. The most stringent of criteria is the American College of Rheumatology Remission Criteria, developed in 1980, which consists of clinical symptoms and signs of inflammation including fatigue, joint pain, morning stiffness, joint tenderness, joint swelling, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Several reports have compared ACR remission criteria to Disease Activity Score (DAS) values to identify equivalent DAS remission values, and these have been extrapolated to modified versions of the DAS, the Simple Disease Activity Index (SDAI), and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI). The ACR remission criteria and the response measures were not designed for use as the target or goal for the clinical management of individual RA patients in routine clinical practice. Nevertheless, rheumatologists yearn for the eradication of inflammation in all RA patients, and attaining remission may be achievable in the future.