title: What should be our treatment goal in rheumatoid arthritis today?
abstract: Remission should be the treatment aim in management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) today because joint damage may progress in RA patients with low disease activity but presumably does not progress in patients in clinical remission. However, stringent criteria are needed to define remission status, as some criteria in current use allow for considerable residual disease activity. Even using stringent criteria, remission is achievable in a sizable proportion of patients in clinical trials and practice. Defining remission requires an additional consideration: Should a patient who is receiving medication be regarded as in remission if disease is absent, or must the patient be off treatment to be considered to be in remission? A case is made for aiming for a definition of remission that includes patients who continue medication therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna; Second Department of Medicine, Lainz Hospital, Vienna, Austria. josef.smolen@wienkav.at
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Smolen
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aletaha
mesh_terms: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy*; D018450:Disease Progression; D023381:Endpoint Determination; D006801:Humans; D012074:Remission Induction; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents