Insights into methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis: a clinical review
Date
2016Author
Genga, EK
Oyoo, GO
Ezzi, MS
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective: To review the efficacy and safety profile of methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis.
Data source: Published original research work and reviews were searched in English related to efficacy and safety profile of methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis.
Study design: Only articles that emphasis on efficacy and safety profile of methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis.
Data extraction: Online and library searches done.
Data synthesis: Data added and summarized.
Conclusion: Methotrexate (MTX) has been the mainstay of treatment of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It has been used for over 50 years as the backbone in the treatment in a number of rheumatic diseases and thus it remains a gold standard of therapy for RA. Clinical trial results indicate that weekly low dose MTX is generally safe and effective in the treatment of RA. Factors that favour a good response to MTX are male gender, non-smoking, early disease stage, absence of previous DMARD use, lower baseline disease activity, concomitant corticosteroids, inflammatory biomarkers (TNF-α levels, ESR, CRP) and HLADRB1 shared epitope (SE)-negativity. Folate supplementation has been shown to reduce the risk of adverse events.
Citation
African Journal of Rheumatology, Vol 4, No 2 (2016)Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10377]
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