Regarding joint involvement, ambiguous judgment of symmetric distribution and involvement of three or more joints are no longer necessary data points, whereas the number and sites of joint involvement with clinical evidence of synovitis have decisive influence on the diagnosis according to the new criteria ( 4). Unlike the 1987 ACR criteria, the presence of rheumatoid nodules and typical changes on X-rays, which both reflect long-standing disease, are not included in the new criteria, although serological markers and acute phase reactants are now included.
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Therefore, BS is still helpful to detect RA even after the introduction of the 2010 criteria, especially among patients who do not satisfy the 2010 criteria as well as those who are ineligible for the 2010 criteria due to dubitable arthritis at clinical presentation. However, BS-assisted diagnosis showed high positive prediction values in group I patients with 2010 criteria score < 6 and group II patients. In the group I patients who were eligible for application of the 2010 criteria, the sensitivity of the BS only and BS-assisted diagnosis was not superior to that of the 2010 criteria. Among them, 56 patients in group I and 5 patients in group II were finally classified as RA. Seventy-five patients had active arthritis (Group I), while the remaining 81 patients did not (Group II). We divided them into two groups according to the presence of arthritis upon the first physical examination, and evaluated the diagnostic validity of BS as an independent (BS only) or assistant diagnostic tool using the 2010 criteria (BS-assisted). A total of 156 patients who underwent BS with screening laboratory to confirm RA were enrolled.
![rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis criteria 2013 rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis criteria 2013](https://static-01.hindawi.com/articles/ijr/volume-2013/548502/figures/548502.fig.002.jpg)
We aimed to investigate the role of bone scintigraphy (BS) in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a supplement to the 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) criteria.