Patent ID: 6953665

Claim:
A method for determining the predisposition of a rheumatoid arthritis patient to develop severe disease, said method comprising: a) comparing the frequency of CD4 + /CD28 null cells in said patient to a reference frequency to obtain information about said rheumatoid arthritis condition, and b) determining if said patient is predisposed to develop severe disease based on said information and the presence or absence of an HLA-DRB1 allele in said patient, wherein said HLA-DRB1 allele is an HLA-DRB1 *0401 allele, an HLA-DRB1 *0404 allele, an HLA-DRB1 *0405 allele, or an HLA-DRB1 *0408 allele; wherein said severe disease comprises subcutaneous nodule formation or extra-articular involvement.