BACKGROUND Glucocorticoid therapy is strongly associated with an elevated risk of serious infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The association between glucocorticoids and common non-serious infections (NSI) is not well studied. METHODS A cohort of 16 207 patients with RA aged over 65 years was assembled using administrative data from Quebec. Glucocorticoid and disease-modify...

Today, the goal of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is remission of disease activity which should be achieved through the first 6 months of treatment with conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs and tight control principle. The treatment must be adjusted to the state of disease on each visit. In the absence of remission or low disease activity biological drugs are indicated. Tap...

OBJECTIVES When rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have achieved sustained good clinical responses can their disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) be reduced or discontinued? This review addresses this question by summarising the clinical evidence about DMARD withdrawal. It includes an assessment of predictive factors for sustained DMARD-free remissions. METHODS We evaluated the evi...

Management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has improved over the last 10 years. These changes have been monitored in the Institute of Rheumatology, Rheumatoid Arthritis (IORRA) observational cohort, and clinical remission has become a realistic goal. However, we should recognize that the ultimate goal of treatment is to improve long-term outcomes. These improvements have been achieved not only by ...

d-penicillamine is one of the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (dmards). drug-induced pemphigus is not frequently associated with d-penicillamine, and to date, the number of reported cases is about a hundred. most reports of d-penicillamine-induced pemphigus vulgaris are in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. it has rarely been reported in patients not taking d-penicillamine. we report a ...