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Fig. 1 | Arthritis Research & Therapy

Fig. 1

From: Unraveling heterogeneity within ACPA-negative rheumatoid arthritis: the subgroup of patients with a strong clinical and serological response to initiation of DMARD treatment favor disease resolution

Fig. 1

Schematic depiction of the three hypotheses that were explored.

Previous research showed that high biomarker levels of MMP-3, SAA, and CRP were associated with the development of sustained DMARD-free remission (SDFR) in ACPA-negative RA (1) [9]. Other research showed that ACPA-negative RA patients achieving early DAS remission, i.e., DAS4 months < 1.6 after DMARD initiation, were more likely to achieve SDFR (2) [5]. Combining these previous findings, we studied whether the decline in biomarker levels in the first year after diagnosis was also associated with SDFR (hypothesis 1). Moreover, we explored whether baseline biomarker levels (hypothesis 2) and DAS remission (hypothesis 3) were associated with the decline in biomarker levels in the first year of therapy. It should be noted that this figure is used to illustrate the defined hypothesis and does not suggest any causality

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Arthritis Research & Therapy

ISSN: 1478-6362

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