OBJECTIVE In patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) despite methotrexate, to compare the efficacy of adding tocilizumab to that of switching to tocilizumab monotherapy. METHODS Double-blind, 2-year study in which adults with active RA (DAS28 >4.4) despite methotrexate were randomly assigned either to continue methotrexate with the addition of tocilizumab (MTX+TCZ) 8 mg/kg every 4 week...

OBJECTIVE To examine the pattern of disease severity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at presentation to the Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) over 20 years. METHODS NOAR is a primary-care-based cohort of patients with recent-onset inflammatory polyarthritis. At baseline, subjects are assessed and examined by a research nurse. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) is administere...

Biologics targeting TNF have brought about a paradigm shift in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and infliximab, anti-TNF-alpha chimeric monoclonal antibody, was marketed in 2003 in Japan. We previously reported on the RECONFIRM study, a retrospective clinical study on the efficacy of infliximab therapy in a RA management group in Japan, where we evaluated the clinical response after 2...

OBJECTIVES To analyse the capacity of routine assessment of patient index data 3 (RAPID3), an index of only the three patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures in the RA Core Data Set-physical function, pain and global status-to distinguish abatacept from control treatments in two clinical trials, and to compare RAPID3 results with the disease activity score 28 (DAS28) and RAPID-based indices tha...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of adding sulfasalazine to leflunomide treatment compared with switching to sulfasalazine alone in patients with RA with an inadequate response to leflunomide monotherapy. METHODS Patients with active RA ((DAS28) >3.2) who were enrolled in the first open label phase of the RELIEF study received leflunomide for 24 weeks. Inadequate responders then ...

OBJECTIVE Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a condition that poses many diagnostic problems. As a result, it is often diagnosed too late, which makes effective treatment more difficult. The course of the disease is chronic, and it causes irreversible changes in the musculoskeletal system, as well as bone destruction, and this in turn impairs the proper monitoring of the treatment. Therefore, in orde...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and safety of adalimumab plus methotrexate (ADA+MTX) compared with methotrexate monotherapy in achieving stable low disease activity (LDA; disease activity score (DAS28(CRP)) <3.2 at weeks 22 and 26) and clinical, radiographic and functional outcomes in methotrexate-naive patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS 1032 patients with active RA were ...

OBJECTIVE Antifibrillar collagen type II (anti-CII) antibody-positive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have early but not late signs of increased inflammation and joint erosions. We wanted to replicate this in a large RA cohort, and to relate to human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1* alleles. METHODS Anti-CII and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)2 were measured at baseline in 773 pa...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the real-life immunogenicity of anti-drug antibodies, drug levels, and disease activity in an Italian cohort of rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tocilizumab (TCZ). We evaluated 126 TCZ-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis (16 males and 110 females; mean age 59±12 years, range 26-83; mean disease duration 11±5 years) with inadequate 12-week r...