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Steps towards standard medical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: A practical guide
Affiliations- Department of Early Arthritis, National Institute of Geriatrics, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Warszawa, Poland
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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.
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.
Keywords
rheumatoid arthritis; modifiable RA risk factors; methotrexate; T2T strategy; conventional disease-modifying drugs; disease remission
About this articleTitle
Steps towards standard medical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: A practical guide
Journal
Issue
Article type
Review paper
Pages
148-155
Published online
2022-12-29
Page views
3114
Article views/downloads
194
DOI
Bibliographic record
Rheumatology Forum 2022;8(4):148-155.
Keywords
rheumatoid arthritis
modifiable RA risk factors
methotrexate
T2T strategy
conventional disease-modifying drugs
disease remission
Authors
Brygida Kwiatkowska
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