Improved radiological outcome of rheumatoid arthritis: the importance of early treatment with methotrexate in the era of
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Improved radiological outcome of rheumatoid arthritis: the importance of early treatment with methotrexate in the era of biological drugs Christoph Fiehn & Elisabeth Belke-Voss & Dietmar Krause & Siegfried Wassenberg & Rolf Rau
Received: 9 April 2013 / Revised: 9 June 2013 / Accepted: 26 June 2013 / Published online: 8 August 2013 # Clinical Rheumatology 2013
Abstract The objective of this study is to compare the radiological progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) diagnosed in the 1980s with those of the late 1990s until 2005 and to evaluate prognostic factors. Ninety-two RA patients who were firstly seen in our clinic from 1997 to 2005 were identified. As a control group, 89 RA patients from 1986 to 1990 were matched for the criteria disease duration (mean, 22±17 months), age, and number of x-ray controls. Radiological damage was measured by the Ratingen score (RS). The baseline RS of the 1997–2005 group was significantly lower (mean, 3.8±8.7 vs 7.7±13.0; p
