Rheumatoide Arthritis – Warum sind Joint Counts wichtig?

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multi-faceted disease. The disease activity of RA can be assessed by using various measures. The patient's and physician's global assessments of disease activity, pain scores, and acute phase measures are all valid methods to assess disease activity. However, the joints are the target organ of arthritis and, therefore, assessment of joint activity is the most direct and unbiased method to evaluate RA disease activity. Joint Counts should therefore not be omitted at any single occasion of disease activity assessment. Ideally, however, several of the mentioned measures should be used in a combined way to allow for the most reliable results. This can be achieved by using composite indices.