Response to 'Pain persists in DAS28 rheumatoid arthritis remission but not in ACR/EULAR remission: a longitudinal observational study'
1 Department of Rheumatology, Kameda Medical Center, 929 Higashi-Cho, Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture 296-8602, Japan
2 Center for Clinical Epidemiology, St. Luke's International Hospital, 9-1 Akashicho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan
3 Division of Allergy and Rheumatology, St. Luke's International Hospital, 9-1 Akashicho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2011, 13:405 doi:10.1186/ar3393
Published: 18 August 2011First paragraph (this article has no abstract)
We read with interest the report by Lee and colleagues in the June issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy [1]. The study compared the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints calculated by using C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP) versus American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) remission in terms of residual pain. The authors stated that DAS28-CRP remission criteria allowed for persistence of pain in more than 10% of patients, whereas there were very few complaints of pain among patients in ACR/EULAR remission. This is a very important finding as it clearly demonstrated incompetence of the DAS28-CRP remission criteria in defining remission that is meaningful for patients, thus encouraging transition to new ACR/EULAR remission criteria.
