Impaired cutaneous cell-mediated immunity in newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis shows a defective cutaneous cell-mediated immunity when the patients are studied in the early phase of the disease and before a second-line of therapy with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. The anergy does not correlate either with the disease activity or with the short-term response to treatment. The prognostic significance of these data remains uncertain.