A study investigating the addition of a metatarsophalangeal joint 'squeeze test' (for assessment of bilateral compression pain) to the 28-joint disease activity score for classification of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) found that it improved accurate classification of disease activity. The increase in accuracy was greatest for patients with only forefeet arthritis (n = 22), and the squeeze test also increased specificity, while reducing sensitivity, for identifying true remission.