W. B. Harrison, B. A. C. Dijkmans During the last decade intervention has been instituted for all kinds of disease- even in a premorbid state, as early as possible, to control the activity of the disease, to avoid further damage and to maintain quality of life. Apart from the principle 'Treat now, not later," emphasis is laid on aggressive initial therapy. These adagia have influenced in recent times all fields of medicine, from oncology to infectious diseases and also - the topic of the present edition - the "autoimmune diseases." As an example of the latter, rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...