PMID- 12695166
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20030522
LR  - 20190503
IS  - 0003-4967 (Print)
IS  - 1468-2060 (Electronic)
IS  - 0003-4967 (Linking)
VI  - 62
IP  - 5
DP  - 2003 May
TI  - Toxicity profiles of traditional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs for 
      rheumatoid arthritis.
PG  - 482-6
AB  - BACKGROUND: The progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be retarded or 
      halted by disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Next to inefficacy, 
      toxicity limits their use. OBJECTIVE: To explore the toxicity profiles of DMARDs 
      in daily life. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Five hundred and ninety three patients with 
      RA charts (>2300 patient years of treatment) were reviewed at two rheumatology 
      outpatient clinics. All recorded data on toxicity and reasons for stopping 
      treatment were collected. RESULTS: Adverse events were common reasons for 
      treatment discontinuation (42% of treatments). In 70% they were subjectively 
      reported at the clinical visit, while substantial laboratory abnormalities were 
      seen relatively rarely (9% of treatments: abnormal liver function tests in 5%; 
      haematological abnormalities in 3%; impaired renal function in 1%). No single 
      case of retinopathy from antimalarial drugs (that is, an incidence of <0.3 
      events/1000 patient years) was found, although eye examinations by the 
      specialists were abnormal 30 times per 1000 patient years, mostly revealing 
      keratopathy. Most commonly reported symptoms per 1000 patient years were nausea 
      (54 events), abdominal pain (37 events), and rashes (34 events). Adverse events 
      were more likely to occur with increasing number of consecutive DMARD courses. 
      CONCLUSION: The first DMARD course in a patient seems to be safer than the 
      consecutive ones. In addition, the incidence of adverse events (AEs) seems to be 
      similar for high and low dose treatment. Data are also provided on types and 
      incidence of AEs that are consistent with previous studies in other countries and 
      different settings.
FAU - Aletaha, D
AU  - Aletaha D
AD  - Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine III, University of 
      Vienna, Austria. Daniel.Aletaha@akh-wien.ac.at
FAU - Kapral, T
AU  - Kapral T
FAU - Smolen, J S
AU  - Smolen JS
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Multicenter Study
PL  - England
TA  - Ann Rheum Dis
JT  - Annals of the rheumatic diseases
JID - 0372355
RN  - 0 (Antimalarials)
RN  - 0 (Antirheumatic Agents)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Antimalarials/adverse effects
MH  - Antirheumatic Agents/*adverse effects
MH  - Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*drug therapy
MH  - Drug Therapy, Combination
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
PMC - PMC1754550
EDAT- 2003/04/16 05:00
MHDA- 2003/05/23 05:00
PMCR- 2006/05/01
CRDT- 2003/04/16 05:00
PHST- 2003/04/16 05:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2003/05/23 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2003/04/16 05:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2006/05/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1136/ard.62.5.482 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Ann Rheum Dis. 2003 May;62(5):482-6. doi: 10.1136/ard.62.5.482.