Prospective Studies on the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis: The European Risk RA Registry.

Abstract

Background:

The accumulation of risk for the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is regarded as a continuum that may start with interacting environmental and genetic factors, proceed with the initiation of autoimmunity, and result in the formation of autoantibodies such as anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA). In parallel, at-risk individuals may be asymptomatic or experience joint pain (arthralgia) that is itself non-specific or clinically suspicious for evolving RA, even in the absence of overt arthritis. Optimal strategies for the management of people at-risk of RA, both for symptom control and to delay or prevent progression to classifiable disease, remain poorly understood.

Methods:

To help address this, groups of stakeholders from academia, clinical rheumatology, industry and patient research partners have collaborated to advance understanding, define and study different phases of the at-risk state. In this current report we describe different European initiatives in the field and the successful effort to build a European Registry of at-risk people to facilitate observational and interventional research.

Results:

We outline similarities and differences between cohorts of at-risk individuals at institutions spanning several countries, and how to best combine them within the new database. Over the past 2 years, besides building the technical infrastructure, we have agreed on a core set of variables that all partners should strive to collect for harmonization purposes.

Conclusion:

We emphasize to address this process from different angles and touch on the biologic, epidemiologic, analytic, and regulatory aspects of collaborative studies within a meta-database of people at-risk of RA.

• Authors: Paul Studenic, Aase Hensvold, Arnd Kleyer, Annette van der Helm-van Mil, Arthur G Pratt, Daniela Sieghart, Gerhard Krönke, Ruth Williams, Savia de Souza, Susanne Karlfeldt, Martina Johannesson, Niels Steen Krogh, Lars Klareskog, Anca I Catrina
• Journal: Frontiers in medicine (Front Med (Lausanne)) Vol. 9 Pg. 824501 ( 2022) ISSN: 2296-858X [Print] Switzerland
• PMID: 35273981 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Studenic, Hensvold, Kleyer, van der Helm-van Mil, Pratt, Sieghart, Krönke, Williams, de Souza, Karlfeldt, Johannesson, Krogh, Klareskog and Catrina.