MRI of the wrist in early rheumatoid arthritis

Because such studies show much slower progression and smaller differences among treatment groups, they take substantially longer and require greater numbers of patients and clinical sites to achieve statistical significance. Some have advocated treating all patients aggressively anyway in order to avoid missing those who might progress. 10 However, such a catch-all strategy carries significant financial and toxicity implications, as well as potential production challenges in some cases. [...]including non-progressors in clinical trials dilutes statistical power and necessitates exposing larger numbers of patients to experimental treatments for longer periods of time in order to test therapeutic efficacy adequately.