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Rheumatoid arthritis

Diagnosis of RA—we have a dream

It is never too early to tackle arthritis. Currently, classification of rheumatoid arthritis is based on the clinical assessment of synovitis. The question is: should we consider 'clinical synovitis' the gold standard for clinical decision making, or should we try something more?

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Figure 1: Power Doppler ultrasonography imaging features of synovitis.

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Correspondence to Walter Grassi.

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W. Grassi declares that he has received financial/grant support from, acted as a consultant for and received speakers' honoraria from AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Esaote, GE Medical Systems, MSD, Pfizer, Roche and UCB Pharma, has acted as a consultant for and received speakers' honoraria from Menarini, and has acted as a consultant for Savient. E. Filippucci declares that he has received speakers' honoraria from Abbott, AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Esaote, MSD, Pfizer, Schering-Plough and UCB Pharma and has acted as a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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Grassi, W., Filippucci, E. Diagnosis of RA—we have a dream. Nat Rev Rheumatol 9, 202–204 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.39

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