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Rheumatoid arthritis

Evidence for a genetic component to disease severity in RA

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is partly heritable; genetic and serological markers are known to confer risk of developing pathology. But given clinical heterogeneity in RA, can we predict who will develop severe disease? Substantial heritability of erosive progression rates has now been identified, but better prognostic biomarkers remain wanting.

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Acknowledgements

The work of S. Raychaudhuri is supported by funds from the NIH (K08AR055688), Arthritis Foundation, the Harvard University Milton Fund, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. E. A. Stahl's work is supported by NIH grant U01GM092691 to Robert M. Plenge, MD PhD (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School).

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Correspondence to Soumya Raychaudhuri.

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Stahl, E., Raychaudhuri, S. Evidence for a genetic component to disease severity in RA. Nat Rev Rheumatol 8, 312–313 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2012.74

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