VEGFA and rheumatoid arthritis: On the other hand, the strengths of the study include: i) the demonstration of the apparent limitations of the measured circulating biomarkers in predicting responses to therapy with synthetic DMARDs in RA patients with relatively early disease; ii) HDA post-therapy is associated with persistently elevated levels of VEGF, IL-8 and G-CSF; iii) combining MTX with oral corticosteroids appears to be associated with a more robust decline in cytokine levels; and iv) ACPA levels measured pre-therapy are significantly higher in patients with the risk allele genotype.