Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug withdrawal in patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) withdrawal on blood pressure (BP), 44-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS44), and functional assessments in patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: NSAID was withdrawn from 30 patients with stable RA (DAS44 ≤ 2.8).

Combination therapy with sulfasalazine and methotrexate is more effective than either drug alone in patients with rheumatoid arthritis with a suboptimal response to sulfasalazine: results from the double-blind placebo-controlled MASCOT study.

Background: Optimal use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis is vital if progression of disease is to be reduced. Methotrexate (MTX) and sulfasalazine (SASP) are widely used inexpensive DMARDs, recently often combined despite no firm evidence of benefit from previous studies.

Aim: To establish whether a combination of SASP and MTX is superior to either drug alone in patients with rheumatoid arthritis with a suboptimal response to 6 months of SASP.

The frequency and distribution of minocycline induced hyperpigmentation in a rheumatoid arthritis population.

Objective: Minocycline is particularly useful in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with previous major sepsis, where anti-tumor necrosis factor is relatively contraindicated. Pigmentation is a documented side effect, but predisposing factors in an RA population have not been established. We investigated minocycline induced pigmentation in a population with RA to determine whether skin type and eye color influence predisposition to this side effect.

Trial of Atorvastatin in Rheumatoid Arthritis (TARA): double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is characterised by inflammatory synovitis, articular destruction, and accelerated atherogenesis. HMG-CoA (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutarylcoenzyme A) reductase inhibitors (statins) mediate clinically significant vascular risk reduction in patients without inflammatory disease and might have immunomodulatory function. We postulated that statins might reduce inflammatory factors in rheumatoid arthritis and modify surrogates for vascular risk.

A longitudinal study of lung function in nonsmoking patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Study Objective: s: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a high prevalence of pulmonary function test (PFT) abnormality, but the long-term significance of this is unknown. We performed a longitudinal study of pulmonary function in asymptomatic, nonsmoking patients with active RA requiring disease-modifying drugs. We looked for temporal change in lung function and characteristics that would predict subsequent development of PFT abnormality or respiratory symptoms.