LETTER

Effectiveness of a once weekly double dose of etanercept in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a clinical study

Femke H M Prince, Marinka Twilt, Nelleke C J A Jansen-Wijngaarden and Lisette W A van Suijlekom-Smit

Department of Paediatrics, Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
F H M Prince
Department of Paediatrics, Sp 1545, Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital, PO Box 2060, 3000 CB Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Accepted 19 February 2007

Keywords: juvenile idiopathic arthritis; etanercept; once weekly; double dose

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Etanercept is effective in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).^1–3 Currently it is administered subcutaneously at a dose of 0.4 mg/kg (maximum of 25 mg) twice a week. Clinical trials in adults show that administration of a double dose once a week is effective enough to induce and retain remission.^4,5 A pharmacokinetic model developed by Yim et al⁶ indicates that the same dosing regimen could be used in children. Wallace⁷ mentions the once weekly double dose in patients with JIA, but this is not supported by clinical trials. Therefore we evaluated the efficacy of etanercept administered subcutaneously once a week at a dose of 0.8 mg/kg (maximum of 50 mg) to retain and induce remission in patients with JIA.

Eleven patients with JIA, in remission, who had already been treated with etanercept twice a week at the usual dose were switched to the double dose of 0.8 mg/kg subcutaneously once a week. . . . [Full text of this article]

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