Arthritis Unit, Rheumatology Service, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain.
Curr Top Med Chem. 2013;13(6):698-704. doi: 10.2174/15680266113139990092.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most frequent form of chronic polyarthritis, affecting 0.5-1% of adults worldwide. In recent years there have been important advances in the pathogenesis of RA, together with new diagnostic and therapeutic insights. Early diagnosis is essential in order to prevent joint damage and improve the prognosis and quality of life of patients with RA. New classification diagnostic criteria have been proposed to achieve this objective. New therapeutic strategies have proved to be effective, including early and better use of synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS), mainly methotrexate, and a treat-to-target strategy focusing on achieving remission and with tight control of the disease. In the last decade, the introduction of various biological agents in the therapeutic armamentarium of RA has changed the disease prognosis, although no definite cure is currently possible. In this chapter, we present an overview of recent advances in the epidemiology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of this severe but treatable disease.
类风湿关节炎（RA）是最常见的慢性多关节炎，全球范围内影响 0.5-1%的成年人。近年来，RA 的发病机制、新的诊断和治疗方法有了重要进展。早期诊断对于预防关节损伤、改善 RA 患者的预后和生活质量至关重要。已经提出了新的分类诊断标准来实现这一目标。新的治疗策略已被证明有效，包括早期更好地使用合成疾病修饰抗风湿药物（DMARDs），主要是甲氨蝶呤，以及以达到缓解和严格控制疾病为目标的治疗策略。在过去十年中，RA 治疗方案中各种生物制剂的引入改变了疾病预后，尽管目前还不可能治愈。在本章中，我们对这种严重但可治疗的疾病的流行病学、诊断、预后和治疗的最新进展进行了概述。
