Table 2

Overview of selected papers

First author, year of publication^ref	N	Quality score (%)	Outcome	Association between shorter symptom duration and outcome
Radiographic joint damage
Jansen, 2001 16	130	79	SHS	S
Lukas, 2011 22	661	86	SHS	S
Nell, 2004 24	40	86	Larsen	S
Van der Linden, 2010 21	598	100	SHS	S
Weng, 2010 30	233	85	Sharp	NS
Bosello, 2011 12	121	50	Larsen or SHS	S
Dixey, 2004 13	866	64	Larsen	S
Kaufmann, 2003 18	54	43	Larsen	NS
Pascual-Ramos, 2009 25	72	43	Erosive (yes/no)	NS
Sanmarti, 2003 27	60	57	Larsen	S
DMARD-free sustained remission
De Rooy, 2011 10*	676	86	DMARD-free sustained remission	S
Van der Woude, 2009 9* (ERAS)	895	86	DMARD-free sustained remission	S
Van der Woude, 2012 11* (BeSt)	508	79	DMARD-free sustained remission	NS
Other outcomes in RA
Jayakumar, 2012 17†	704	85	DAS-28 <1.6‡	S
Mötönnen, 2002 23	199	87	ACR remission	S/NS§
Nell, 2004 24	40	86	DAS-28 <2.6‡ ΔHAQ	S S
Weng, 2010 30	233	85	DAS-44 <1.6‡ ΔHAQ score	NS NS
Bosello, 2011 12¶	121	47	ACR remission	S
Gremese, 2012 14	481	69	DAS-2.8 <2.6‡	S
Hodkinson, 2012 15	171	54	low SDAI	NS
Soderlin, 2011 28	180	69	EULAR response ΔHAQ	S S

Scored as High-quality study.
Scores as Low-quality study.
High-quality study ≥79% (which is the median of all quality scores).
*Van de Woude 2009 reported on the Leiden EAC and the ERAS; since the Leiden EAC data were represented by the De Rooy article, only the ERAS data of this article were used. Similarly, only the BeSt data were used of the van der Woude et al 2012 article.
†Jayakumar et al and van der Woude 2009 et al report on the same cohort however other outcomes were applied.
‡DAS remission is defined as a state, thus, an absolute DAS at a specific time point after treatment.
§Two groups were studied, in the single therapy group a significant association with symptom duration was found, by contrast with the combination therapy group.
¶This cohort is also part of the three cohorts of Gremese et al, but different outcomes were used, namely ACR remission and erosiveness in the Bosello et al article and DAS-2.8<2.6 in the Gremese et al article.
ACR, American College of Rheumatology; DAS, Disease activity score; EAC, early arthritis clinic; ERAS, Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study group; Erosive (yes/no), erosive disease present or absent; EULAR, European League Against Rheumatism; HAQ, health assessment questionnaire; NS, Not statistically significant Trend: almost statistically significant. RA, Rheumatoid Arthritis; S, statistically significant; SHS, Sharp–van der Heijde score.