Influence of methotrexate on radiographic progression in rheumatoid arthritis: a sixty-month prospective study.

Objective: To evaluate if methotrexate (MTX) can slow disease progression, as determined radiographically, in comparison to other disease modifying drugs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Materials And Methods: Pairs of hand and wrist radiographs from 30 patients treated with MTX and 30 treated with D-penicillamine (DP) were evaluated blindly and separately by two radiologists (A and B) using reference radiographs for scoring. A scale scoring similar to Larsen's standard radiographs with minor modifications was used.