Genetic predisposition is increased across patients with pre-rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology. Marc P. Maurits and colleagues examined whether established genetic predictors for RA differentiate healthy controls (HC), clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA), and RA. CSA patients were assessed for conversion to inflammatory arthritis for 2 years and were classified as converter (CSAc) or nonconverter (CSAnc; 84 and 395, respectively). Compared with both CSA and CSAc, the polygenic risk score (PRS) was increased in RA (mean, 1.31 vs 1.07 and 1.12, respectively). In anticitrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-negative participants, the distribution of PRS differed strongly when comparing CSA, especially CSAc, with RA (1.05 and 0.97, respectively, vs 1.20), while CSA differed from both HCs and RA in ACPA-positive participants (1.25% vs 1.05% and 1.41%, respectively). Human leukocyte antigen-shared epitope (HLASE) was more prevalent in RA than CSA (0.64 vs 0.45). The prevalence of HLA-SE differed more strongly within ACPA-positive participants.

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