Assessing remission in rheumatoid arthritis on the basis of patient reported outcomes--advantages of using RAPID3/MDHAQ in routine care.

Advances in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have rendered remission an increasingly achievable goal. However, a single, universal definition of remission in RA does not exist. Remission criteria were developed in 1981 by a committee of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and have been described according to different composite indices. In 2011, a committee of the ACR and the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) has proposed two remission criteria sets to be applied in clinical trials, a Boolean criteria set and a simplified disease activity index (SDAI), which are more stringent than disease activity score with 28 swollen join count (DAS28) to identify remission. More recently, remission has been described based on routine assessment of patient index data (RAPID3), an index of only patient reported outcomes (PROs). Remission criteria of RAPID3 ≥ 3 and less than one swollen joint (RAPID3 SJ1) is comparable to Boolean criteria and can be implemented in busy clinical settings more easily than indices requiring a laboratory test or formal joint count.