BACKGROUND: Early RA patients (ERA pts) often present with different areas of joint involvement, but limited data exist to identify which specific joint locations may be indicative of greater disease severity. OBJECTIVES: This analysis investigated the baseline (BL) prevalence of swelling, tenderness and erosions in individual joint locations and their possible association with disease characteristics, prognostic factors and response to Methotrexate (MTX) in a cohort of ERA pts. METHODS: This analysis was based on data from the ERA UCLouvain Brussels cohort in which patients were included according the ACR/EULAR 2010 criteria and naïve to DMARDs. The physician assessed prevalence of BL individual swollen and tender joint status (present, absent) through a physical examination. The joint count includes 44 joints. Similarly, all patient and RA characteristics were collected. The association between BL swelling, tender, erosions and disease characteristics was investigated for each individual joint. Remission rates (DAS28-CRP < 2.6) in patients treated only with MTX were assessed in order to analyze the correlation with BL joint location. [..]