The universal presence of poor prognostic factors based on EULAR recommendations: A real-world study in 1164 Chinese...

Poor prognostic factors (PPFs) have been used in assisting therapeutic decision-making in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). There are no standard lists of PPFs for RA, and whether PPFs can guide RA treatment remains controversial.

To analyze the profile of PPF based on EULAR recommendations in RA patients and explore the necessity of considering these PPFs in adjusting therapy.

Prognostic factors including erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA), swollen joint count (SJC), early erosions, and response to first conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARD) therapy in 1164 RA patients were collected. The profile of PPFs was graphically displayed. The correlation between different PPFs was analyzed.

Elevated ESR/CRP was presented in 746 (64%) patients, and positive RF/ACPA in 1021 (88%) patients. Two hundred and sixty-eight (23%) patients had≥4 swollen joints. Three hundred (26%) patients had moderate or high disease activity (MDA/HDA) despite csDMARD therapy. Failure of≥2 csDMARDs was found in 30% (224/740) of patients. One hundred and fifty-three out of 459 (33%) patients had early bone erosions, usually coexisted with other PPFs. Ninety-seven percent of RA patients had≥1 PPF. Being MDA/HDA≥3 months was significantly correlated with elevated ESR/CRP or high SJC, however uncorrelated with RF/ACPA positivity or early erosions.

PPFs are universally present in RA patients. The reasonability of guiding treatment strategies just based on the presence or absence of PPFs requires further investigation. The categories of PPFs can be simplified and the role of different PPFs combinations in guiding treatment needs to be explored.