Neither ultrasound synovitis nor clinical-ultrasound phenotypes of established rheumatoid arthritis predict response to targeted therapy
Authors' conclusion
Strikingly, neither baseline synovitis nor inflammatory cluster predicted clinical response.
Study context
- Population
- Consecutively recruited patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) starting targeted therapy (TT)recruited
- Participants
- 200 participants
- Exposure
- Baseline US synovitis vs none, and clinical-US clusters 2 and 3 vs lowest inflammatory cluster 1, for EULAR response to TT
- Outcome
- EULAR response
- Follow-up
- 6 months
Methodological detailsconsecutively recruited, latent profile analysis, multinomial logistic regression
- Consecutively recruited
- Latent profile analysis
- Multinomial logistic regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Relative risk ratio (95% CI)
Baseline synovitisvs No baseline synovitis
1.05(0.38–2.93)
Cluster 2vs Cluster 1
1.50(0.61–3.70)
Cluster 3vs Cluster 1
1.24(0.43–3.60)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Median
| Outcome | Cluster 1 | Cluster 2 | Cluster 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total joint PD synovitis by cluster · baseline | 2 (IQR 0–4) | 9 (IQR 6–13) | 29.5 (IQR 21–45) |
Patient reported outcomes (PROs) by cluster · baseline
- DAS-P score distributions differed between clusters but with identical medians
- P = 0.001
- HAQ correlated with disease activity
- Other PROs did not differ
Original publication
Neither ultrasound synovitis nor clinical-ultrasound phenotypes of established rheumatoid arthritis predict response to targeted therapy. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 25 June 2025. doi:10.
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