The Effects of Disease Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs in the Treatment of Early Stage Rheumatoid Arthritis

Disease modifing anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have been administered to 12 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients whose disease duration were less than 3 months. Of these, 10 patients showed clinical improvement as well as a decrease in erythrocyte sedimentation rate and CRP levels within 6 months and satisfied the ARA criteria for remission. In 6 patients, progression of the radiologic wrist joint destruction was observed, but in the remaining 6 patients, including 4 patients treated with intra-muscular gold sodium thiomalate, radiologic bone damage was not seen.Although adverse reactions were observed in 7 patients, they were mild and transient. The results of this study showed that the treatment with DMARDs in the very early stage of RA patients are more effective for preventing irrevesible osteoarticular damage.