Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods of treating a subject with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and methods of predicting the subject's likelihood of responding to a new RA therapy. The methods include administering to the subject a composition comprising a macrophage targeting construct and an imaging moiety conjugated thereto to acquiring planar images of a plurality of joints of the subject, and determining at least one TUVGlobal value for the subject from the planar images. Covariates comprising the quantification of serological RA markers and/or clinical assessments may be further obtained to apply statistical modeling to the combination of the at least one TUVGlobal and the one or more covariates. The statistical modeling is used to determine a likelihood of response to an RA therapy, and a treatment is administered to the subject based on the likelihood of response to the RA therapy.

Abstract: Compositions and methods are disclosed for assessing macrophage involvement in the inflammation of one or more joints of a subject. In certain aspects, the disclosed method includes the steps of administering to the subject a composition comprising a mannosylated dextran construct with an imaging moiety conjugated thereto; acquiring one or more planar images of a first joint of the subject; defining a region of interest (ROI) comprising the first joint; defining a joint specific reference region (RR); determining a MARTAD value of the joint by assessing the ratio of average pixel intensity of the ROI to the average pixel intensity of the RR; and comparing the MARTAD of the first joint to a normal MARTAD value for a corresponding joint, and wherein macrophage involvement is indicated by a joint specific MARTAD value that exceeds the normal MARTAD value by a predetermined threshold.