Patients with clinically relevant improvement5-150, clinical response5-151, and remission5-152 after one and two years
| No (%) patients | Difference between strategies p value χ2 test | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy I | Strategy II | Strategy III | |||
| 1 year5-153 | |||||
| Disability | 39 (39) | 46 (52) | 51 (53) | NS | |
| Pain score | 70 (67) | 63 (64) | 75 (72) | NS | |
| Joint score | 71 (66) | 80 (79) | 86 (82) | I v II: p=0.04; I v III: p=0.01 | |
| ESR | 60 (56) | 64 (63) | 71 (68) | NS | |
| Clinical response | 58 (56) | 61 (64) | 72 (71) | NS | |
| Remission | 17 (16) | 31 (31) | 25 (24) | I v II: p=0.01; IIIv I /II: NS | |
| 2 years5-153 | |||||
| Disability | 40 (41) | 39 (47) | 45 (47) | NS | |
| Pain score | 67 (64) | 71 (73) | 65 (63) | NS | |
| Joint score | 80 (75) | 78 (78) | 80 (76) | NS | |
| ESR | 68 (64) | 67 (67) | 69 (66) | NS | |
| Clinical response | 63 (61) | 68 (71) | 64 (63) | NS | |
| Remission | 20 (19) | 29 (29) | 25 (24) | NS | |
↵5-150 Clinically relevant improvement is ⩾33% improvement after one and two years respectively from baseline.
↵5-151 Clinical response is ⩾20% improvement on three or four end points.
↵5-152 Remission: morning stiffness ≤15 minutes, pain score ≤10 mm, joint score ≤1, and ESR ≤30 mm/1st h at respectively one or two years.
↵5-153 At year 1 data were missing for improvement on disability (27 patients), pain (7), ESR (1), clinical response (11); at year 2 data were missing for improvement on disability (37), pain (8), joint score (1), ESR (1), clinical response (13), and remission (2).
NS = not significantly different.