Objective: Develop guidelines for management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Brazil, focusing on diagnosis and early assessment of the disease. Method: Literature review and expert opinions of RA Committee members of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology. Results and conclusions: The following ten reccommendations were established: 1) RA diagnosis should be established onsidering clinical findings and complementary test results; 2) Special attention should be given to the differential diagnosis of arthritis; 3) Rheumatoid factor (RF) is an important diagnostic test, but has limited sensitivity and specificity, mainly in early RA; 4) Anti-CCP (anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody) is a marker with sensitivity similar to that of the RF, but with higher specificity, mainly in the initial phase of disease; 5) Although unspecific, acute-phase reactants should be measured in patients with clinical suspicion of RA; 6) Conventional radiography should be performed for diagnostic and prognostic assessment of the disease. When necessary and available, ultrasound and magnetic resonance may be used; 7) Rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria (ACR/EULAR 2010), although not yet validated, may be used as a guide to aid in diagnosing patients with early RA; 8) One of the combined disease activity indices should be used to assess disease activity; 9) At least one of the functional capacity assessment instruments, such as mHAQ or HAQ-DI, should be regularly used; 10) At the early assessment of the disease, the presence of worse prognostic factors, such as polyarticular involvement, high titers of RF and/or anti-CCP, and early joint erosion, should be investigated. © Elsevier Editora Ltda.513199219Lee, D.M., Weinblatt, M.E., Rheumatoid arthritis (2001) Lancet, 358, pp. 903-911Alarcón, G.S., Epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis (1995) Rheum Dis Clin North Am, 21, pp. 589-604Silman, A.J., Pearson, J.E., Epidemiology and genetics of rheumatoid arthritis (2002) Arthritis Res, 4, pp. S265-S272Marques-Neto, J.F., Gonçalves, E.T., Langen, L.F.O.B., Cunha, M.F.L., Radominski, S., Oliveira, S.M., Multicentric study of the prevalence of adult rheumatoid arthritis in Brazilian population samples (1993) Rev Bras Reumatol, 33, pp. 169-173Emery, P., The optimal management of early rheumatoid arthritis: The key to preventing disability (1994) British J Rheumatol, 33, pp. 765-768Sokka, T., Work disability in early rheumatoid arthritis (2003) Clin Exp Rheumatol, 21, pp. S71-S74Chehata, J.C., Hassell, A.B., Clarke, S.A., Mattey, D.L., Jones, M.A., Jones, W., Mortality in rheumatoid arthritis: Relationship to single and composite measures of disease activity (2001) Rheumatology, 40, pp. 447-452van der Horst-Bruinsma, L.E., Speyer, I., Visser, H., Breedvelt, F.C., Hazes, G.M., Diagnosis and course of early-onset arthritis: Results of a special early arthritis clinic compared to routine patient care (1998) Br J Rheumatol, 37, pp. 1084-1088Majithia, V., Geraci, S.A., Rheumatoid arthritis: Diagnosis and management (2007) Am J Med, 120, pp. 936-939Haque, U.J., Bathon, J.M., The role of biological in early rheumatoid arthritis (2005) Best Pract & Res Clin Rheum, 19, pp. 179-189Cabral, D., Katz, J.N., Weinblatt, M.E., Ting, G., Avorn, J., Solomon, D.H., Development and assessment of indicators of rheumatoid arthritis severity: Results of a Delphi panel (2005) Arthritis Rheum, 53, pp. 61-66Sokka, T., Kautiainen, H., Pincus, T., Verstappen, S.M., Aggarwal, A., Alten, R., Work disability remains a major problem in rheumatoid arthritis in the 2000s: Data from 32 countries in the QUEST-RA study (2010) Arthritis Res Ther, 12 (2), pp. R42Saag, K.G., Teng, G.G., Patkar, N.M., Anuntiyo, J., Finney, C., Curtis, J.R., American College of Rheumatology. 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