HealthDay (2/1, Preidt) reported that, according to a study published in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, "a blood test can predict rheumatoid arthritis (RA) long before a person notices symptoms." After analyzing "blood samples taken from 86 people before the onset of RA symptoms, from 69 of the same people after RA symptoms began, and from a group of 256 people who did not have the disease," Swedish investigators "identified several cytokines, cytokine-related factors and chemokines whose levels increase significantly as much as several years before the onset of" RA.