Steps towards standard medical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: A practical guide

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease, involving the longterm use of drugs that act by different mechanisms to treat this disease in an effective way. Current eligibility criteria enable early diagnosis of RA, which should result in early treatment. An important component of therapy is good cooperation with a patient, who has an impact on modifiable factors that affect the course of RA and the efficacy of treatment, such as treatment of periodontal infections, weight reduction and smoking cessation. RA treatment should follow the treat-to-target (T2T) strategy, according to which patients should be continuously monitored for treatment efficacy and therapy should be adjusted to achieve improvement after 3 months and disease remission after 6 months. There is an increasing number of drugs available that allow a more precise choice of therapy, however, there is still little availability of drugs reimbursed under the B.33 Drug Program.
During the course of therapy, it is also necessary to monitor the safety of the treatment used.