CHICAGO — A high number of dominant B-cell receptor clones in peripheral blood can predict significant short-term risk for rheumatoid arthritis in patients, according to data presented at the ACR/ARHP 2018 Annual Meeting.

“If early treatment is so very important, should we start treatment during the at-risk phase in order to prevent rheumatoid arthritis?” Niek de Vries, MD, PhD, of the University of Amsterdam, asked attendees. “The problem is, only a subset of these patients will develop arthritis within the upcoming 3 years — and it’s only 28%, so less than one-third of the population. We need to know better whom to treat and who we should identify as pre-RA.”