We measured NF-κB, IKK, c-Fos, and GRα mRNA expression and in vivo glucocorticoid sensitivity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A very low dose intravenous dexamethasone suppression test and real-time PCR quantitation of mRNA of these genes were performed on blood samples from 21 rheumatoid arthritis patients who were not on glucocorticoids during the previous four months and on blood samp...

OBJECTIVES To study the number of patients that taper or discontinue concomitant methotrexate (MTX) in daily practice in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) and to analyse the effects of that adaption on disease activity and drug survival. METHODS Data were collected from the Dutch Rheumatoid Arthritis Monitoring (DREAM) registry. Patie...

INTRODUCTION The aim of our study was to investigate the association between arthritic disease activity and antibodies to mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV), because such a relation has been suggested. METHODS Anti-MCV levels were measured in 162 patients with early arthritis (123 with rheumatoid arthritis and 39 with undifferentiated arthritis) at baseline and at 1 and 2 years of foll...

OBJECTIVES Depression is common in RA and may be influenced by both disease activity and severity. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of depression in RA patients starting anti-TNF therapy, to investigate how mood alters after exposure to anti-TNF and to determine whether depression is recognized and appropriately managed in the clinic. METHODS Patients starting anti-TN...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term effectiveness and safety of 10 years of adalimumab (ADA) treatment in DMARD-refractory RA patients and to analyse efficacy based on RF status and baseline disease duration. METHODS DE020 was a multicentre, phase 3, open-label continuation study. Adult RA patients who received s.c. ADA (40 mg every other week or monthly) in one of four early assessment studi...

OBJECTIVE To compare drug efflux function of ABCB1 and ABCG2 transporters in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with active disease and in remission. METHODS Twenty two active RA patients (DAS28 ≥3.2) and 22 patients in remission (DAS28<2.6) were selected from an early RA clinic. All patients were evaluated at study inclusion and six months later. ABCB1 and ABCG2 functional activity was measu...

OBJECTIVES Prediction of radiographic progression (RP) in early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA) would be very useful for optimal choice among available therapies. We evaluated a multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) score, based on 12 serum biomarkers as a baseline predictor for 1-year RP in eRA. METHODS Baseline disease activity score based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR), disease...

This study proposed to assess the nutritional status of RA patients and to study any impact of disease activity (as assessed by DAS 28 score) on it. In this study 150 cases of RA diagnosed according to 1987 revised ACR criteria were recruited. Patients with immunocompromised state (i. e. HIV, malignancy), malabsorption syndrome, chronic disease or autoimmune disorder other than RA, metabolic sy...

BACKGROUND Previous work identified synovial sublining macrophage numbers as a potential biomarker for clinical efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis. OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between changes in infiltration of synovial macrophages and clinical improvement after antirheumatic treatment. METHODS 88 patients who participated in various clinical trials were studied. All patients und...