Correlations between clinical facets of outcome in rheumatoid arthritis.

At 8-year follow-up of 103 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, an X-ray index based on Larsen's score for the hands, wrists, ankles and feet showed a high correlation with the joint score (0.75 by Spearman's rank correlation), the function score (0.68), ESR (0.61), and CRP (0.64). These results suggest that Larsen's method of scoring both the hands and feet is a valid single method to assess long-term outcome in rheumatoid arthritis.