Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Rheumatoid arthritis

Erosion defined: back to basics

Current classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis allow its classification on the basis of the presence of erosions, in the absence of other indicators. Nevertheless, definition or quantitation of erosions was lacking. A European task force has now addressed this issue by analysing radiographic erosions in two cohorts of patients with early disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Arnett, F. C. et al. The American Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 31, 315–324 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Aletaha, D. et al. 2010 Rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria: an American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism collaborative initiative. Arthritis Rheum. 62, 2569–2581 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. van der Heijde, D. et al. EULAR definition of erosive disease in light of the 2010 ACR/EULAR rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 72, 479–481 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Funovits, J. et al. The 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis: methodological report phase I. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 69, 1589–1595 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Neogi, T. et al. The 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis: Phase 2 methodological report. Arthritis Rheum. 62, 2582–2591 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Knevel, R. et al. Defining erosive disease typical of RA in the light of the ACR/EULAR 2010 criteria for rheumatoid arthritis; results of the data driven phase. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 72, 590–595 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Baillet, A. et al. Comparison of the efficacy of sonography, magnetic resonance imaging and conventional radiography for the detection of bone erosions in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 50, 1137–1147 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Schett, G. & Gravallese, E. Bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis: mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment. Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. 8, 656–664 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Dr Gravallese's work is supported by R01 AR055952 from the National Institutes of Health.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ellen M. Gravallese.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kay, J., Gravallese, E. Erosion defined: back to basics. Nat Rev Rheumatol 9, 323–324 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.60

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.60

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing