Клиническая характеристика трех когорт раннего ревматоидного артрита с поздним началом (в возрасте 50 лет и старше). обобщение 40-летнего опыта с включением когорты из российского регистра «ОРЕЛ»

The article presents 3 cohorts with early rheumatoid arthritis in patients aged 50 years and older with a disease duration from 1.5 months to 1 year. To establish a diagnosis, the classification criteria of its period were applied to each of the cohorts: to the 1st - the 1958 ARA criteria, to the 2nd – the 1987 ARA criteria, to the 3rd - the 2010 ACR / EULAR criteria. Along with changes in the criteria diagnostic methods improved, many qualitative laboratory indicators were replaced by a quantitative equivalent; new disease markers (including ACPA), improved imaging methods, changed treatment strategies, genetically engineered drugs, numerous analogues of the original drugs appeared. Сonflicting opinions about the course of RA in older age periods have been published in the literature consistently. During application of the 1958 classification criteria, the prevailing opinion was that these patients had a more favorable course; as a more hardline approach to RA diagnosing appeared, a growing number of supporters of its more severe course appeared. In the research the author tries to answer the question whether the course of the disease in the older age groups has changed at the earliest time from its beginning by comparing three cohorts of different time periods. The data obtained are discussed.