Little is currently known as to the predictive value of ultrasound in guiding the decision to taper drug treatment in patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis, nor the influence that patients' views and opinions regarding their medications may have upon this. In this study, patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis will undergo a simple examination of their joints to look for any swelling or tenderness followed by an ultrasound scan to look for joint inflammation. Half of the patients will also complete an interview to assess their views and opinions of arthritis drug treatment. The study will be completed in a single patient visit - no invasive tests will be performed, and no changes to treatment will be made. This study is being conducted as part of a Masters degree from Newcastle University. The results of this study will be used to inform the feasibility of inclusion of ultrasound assessment within the design of a future PhD study to investigate potential markers of remission in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
17
7-joint musculoskeletal ultrasound scan
Semi-structured patient interview
Musculoskeletal Outpatient Department, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Evidence of reliability of intra- and inter-rater ultrasound agreement for power Doppler synovitis score
Defined as Kappa statistic of at least 0.4.
Time frame: At recruitment
Qualitative data relating to patients' views and opinions of their arthritis medication
Based upon data collected by a semi-structured interview approach and analysed using standard qualitative techniques.
Time frame: At recruitment
Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI)
Time frame: At recruitment
Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS-28)
Time frame: At recruitment
Disease Activity Score (DAS)
Time frame: At recruitment
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