Patients who are free of rheumatoid arthritis synovitis for years after ceasing treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs usually still have autoantibodies in their blood, Dutch researchers say.

In the first research to look at the serology of RA patients in such long-term drug-free remission, a significant decline in mean levels of rheumatoid factor is seen but it usually doesn’t disappear completely.

The findings indicate that treating to a target of autoantibody disappearance is not appropriate, the researchers say in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

The team set out to determine whether long-term DMARD-free remission in RA patients coincided with the disappearance of either anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide 2 (ACPA) or rheumatoid factor (RF) autoantibodies.