Vectra DA Test question

[Joanne NJ]

I have not posted in quite a while; I have previously done very well for over a year on AP via my primary doc back in 2011. I had to stop as I suddenly felt horrible, the worst flare ever and he felt it was time to stop and did not feel comfortable prescribing anymore. Well, I went over two years with no treatment , feeling sorry for myself and using nothing except Motrin and the occasional prednisolone tapers. I have considerable damage in my right hand (swelling and ulnar drift) and right foot and felt horrible the whole time. Finding an AP doc in my state was difficult, I did go to Dr. B in PA in Nov. of 2013 and resumed AP. (Mino 50 mg M, W, F) It was slow go, not much improvement. I did not go back because of cost and distance. I was out of refills and decided to try a new to our area Rheumatologist. I saw her for the first time in May 2014, and it went well. She respected my decision to not do MTX or a biologic and continue the mino for now. She ordered labs (nothing to really compare as I had not had blood work done in quite some time), ordered Xrays, and prescribed mino at 100 mg twice a day! (she felt I was on way to low of a dose). I decided to do 100 mg only once a day as I know the theory of low and slow. About 4 weeks into this dose I had my labs done and all looks good, CRP 3.7, SED rate 16, both in normal range and I FEEL WONDERFUL! One thing comes back quite low, Vitamin D is 8.3, the Dr. says she has never seen such a low result and prescribes vitamin d to take once a week for 12 weeks. I went to see her today for the second time, and we went over the labs in person, she is impressed with the results and glad I feel well, but still thinks we need to add something (MTX or biologic). I asked for two more months of the AP, she agrees but wants to do a Vectra DA test. Has anyone ever had this done and if so, did you feel it helped in your treatment plan with your Dr.? I understand the theory of the test, a deeper look into disease activity and to track changes over time, more impressive than CRP and ESR. My hand and foot/ankle are still quite swollen and the Dr. seemed to not understand why this is when I have no pain in the joints and feeling so good overall. Thanks so much!

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