Table 2 Evaluation of the prediction score (⩾2) in early stage RA at the first visit.

Total score	Sensitivity (%)	Specificity (%)	Positive predictive value (%)	Negative predictive value (%)	Accuracy (%)
⩾1	96.3	30.3
⩾2	82.5	84.8	93.0	66.7	83.2
3	50.0	96.9

We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of our scoring system for the prediction of early stage RA according to the sum of weighted scores described in table 1.

Sensitivity and specificity are shown for patients classified as early stage RA according to the total score (sum of weighted score 1–3).

We evaluated the statistical character of prediction score (⩾2) for the present 113 patients for the prediction of RA at entry.