Rheumatoid Arthritis Through Education and US Study (RAEUS)

Improvement in Patient Awareness and Ability to Assess Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Rheumatoid Arthritis Through Education and US Study (RAEUS)

Patients can potentially monitor disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) through self-assessed swollen joints (clinical synovitis)joint counts but reliability of joint swelling is poor. The objective is to evaluate the use of education by ultrasound feedback on the ability of patients to assess for clinical synovitis swollen joints in RA.

Design: 6-month single centre randomized controlled trial. Patients: established RA. Intervention: education on self-assessment of joints that included initial brief patient training on tender (TJC) and swollen (SJC) joint counts, followed by US feedback every 3 months versus standard care without education. Patient and physician independently performed 28-joint counts at each visit. Outcome variables: (Primary) Percentage of patients with good agreement with physician derived swollen joints (prevalence-adjusted bias adjusted kappa, PABAK>0.6). Other variables: Agreement in SJC (Bland and Altman 95% limits of agreement), feasibility/patient satisfaction survey and disease activity score (DAS28) at 6 months.

Inclusion Criteria:

• RA patients fulfilling ACR1987 criteria
• adults between age 21 and 80 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnant
• no mental health illness
• fit to perform informed consent