VIEWPOINT

Guidelines for initiation of anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: similarities and differences across Europe

P Emery¹, R Van Vollenhoven², M Ostergaard³, E Choy⁴, B Combe⁵, W Graninger⁶, K Krueger⁷, M Matucci-Cerinic⁸, F Navarro⁹, P van Riel¹⁰, L Settas¹¹, S Steinfeld¹²

¹ University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
² Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
³ Hvidovre University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
⁴ King’s College, London, UK
⁵ Hopital Lapeyronie, Montpellier, France
⁶ University of Graz, Graz, Austria
⁷ University of Munich, Munich, Germany
⁸ University of Florence, Florence, Italy
⁹ Hospital General Universitatrio Virgen Macarena, Seville, Spain
¹⁰ Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹¹ University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
¹² Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence to:
Professor P Emery, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Academic Section of Musculoskeletal Disease, 2nd Floor, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Chapeltown Road, Leeds LS7 4SA, UK; p.emery@leeds.ac.uk

Accepted 11 January 2009

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

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease. In the majority of patients the course is progressive and leads to destruction of joints, functional disability, reduced quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. Advances in treatment for RA have been associated with an improvement in the health status of patients with RA in recent years.¹ While the management of RA varies widely across Europe,² the underlying pathophysiology does not differ between countries. A cross-sectional comparison of patients with RA in 15 different countries (largely European) revealed great variation in the drug management of patients with RA, including the delay in starting a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) ranging from <6 to >12 months, use of methotrexate (<80% of patients in the UK and Serbia had received methotrexate) and use of biological agents (>40% in France and Ireland vs. <10% in Serbia and Poland).³ It is also noteworthy that disease . . . [Full text of this article]

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Comment on the viewpoint by P Emery et al, “Guidelines for initiation of anti TNF treatment in RA"

JE Fonseca, et al.

Ann Rheum Dis Online, 19 May 2009 [Full text]