Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use according to the 'sawtooth' treatment strategy improves the functional outcome in rheumatoid arthritis: results of a long-term follow-up study with review of the literature.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate long-term functional outcomes of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated actively with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) from diagnosis, according to the 'sawtooth' principle, and to compare the results to historical data.


METHODS
The surviving 46 and 65 patients from two early RA cohorts were examined on average 13.0 (cohort 1) and 8.5 (cohort 2) yr, respectively, after onset of disease. Functional outcome was measured by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and compared with the HAQ scores of 57 RA patient cohorts found through a Medline computer search.


RESULTS
The respective cross-sectional mean HAQ scores of cohorts 1 and 2 were 0.75 and 0. 55, and were more favourable than the mean HAQ scores of 1.27 (27 cohorts, disease duration >10 yr) and 1.13 (13 cohorts, disease duration 5-10 yr) of the comparator cohorts. The median time that our patients were treated with DMARDs out of the total follow-up period was 88%, while in the majority of comparator cohorts the use of DMARDs was less extensive or poorly described.


CONCLUSIONS
The observation of better preserved function in patients with RA over 13 and 8.5 yr, compared to earlier reports which indicated more severe declines, is a hopeful sign for the rheumatology community.
Sokka
T
T
Department of Medicine, Jyväskylä Central Hospital, Jyväskylä and. Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Möttönen
T
T
Hannonen
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D018501:Antirheumatic Agents