Patients with arthritis in one joint 'are unlikely to develop rheumatoid arthritis'

Patients who suffer from inflammatory arthritis in just one joint are not at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a new report has suggested. French researchers published their findings in the Journal of Rheumatology.

They studied a cohort of 270 patients with early inflammatory arthritis. Some of the group had arthritis in a single joint, others had a past history of self-reported arthritis and the rest suffered from oligo- or polyarthritis (arthritis in more than one joint).

At six-monthly intervals, the patients underwent evaluations to assess the progression of the arthritis. It was discovered that the group with arthritis in one joint were less likely to develop RA than people in the other two groups. In fact, no patient in the one arthritic joint group received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis during the trial.

As a result, Dr Alain Saraux and the rest of the team concluded: "The [single joint arthritis] group was clearly different from the other groups, with a favourable outcome and no risk of progression to RA."