Concomitant presence of TNFRII 196R allele and at least one HLA-DR1/DR4 allele was found to be associated with RA diagnosis (P = 0.012; PPV 71%, NPV 47.4%; OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.16–4.32) but not with early progression of joint damage, both for the whole cohort (P = 0.806) and for RA patients (P = 0.802), or with functional severity, both for the whole cohort (P = 0.285) and for RA patients (P = 0.587). This evidence concerns the gene TNFRSF1B and rheumatoid arthritis.