Genetic factors are known to play a role in predisposing people to the disease, in part because rheumatoid arthritis tends to run in families. But scientists do not yet know much about the specific genes involved. N.Y. North Shore serves as a central registry of information. Rheumatoid arthritis, which affects more than two million people in the United States, is a potentially disabling disorder that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints, and may also affect other body systems.
Treatment includes various medications as well as exercise and self-management programs.
No treatment is ideal, however, and there is no cure. The consortium's first goal in the next three to five years is to find and study 1,000 families with two or more siblings who have rheumatoid arthritis and, if possible, at least one surviving parent. With help from the Arthritis Foundation, the researchers are looking for pairs of siblings in which at least one sibling has relatively severe disease, as indicated by a hand X-ray that shows some bone erosion. Previous studies have found that siblings of a person with rheumatoid arthritis are two to 10 times more likely than other individuals to develop the disease. Medical information and blood samples are being collected from patients recruited through the centers.