[Early rheumatoid arthritis]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is chronic joint disease which if untreated leads to permanent structural damage and disability. Early diagnosis and therapy are the main requests for good clinical practice. Early diagnosis tools include specific clinical assesment, serological, immunogenetic and radiological evaluation. Disease activity score is cornerstone in clinical assesment, rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) are very specific serological parameters. The shared epitope containing HLA-DRB1* alleles represent the most significant genetic risk for RA. Magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging are very sensitive methods in early phase of disease.