LETTER

Adverse events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with infliximab in daily clinical practice

N Neven¹, M Vis¹, A E Voskuyl², G J Wolbink¹, M T Nurmohamed³, B A C Dijkmans², W F Lems¹

¹ Department of Rheumatology, Slotervaart Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
² Department of Rheumatology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
³ Department of Rheumatology, Jan van Breemen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A E Voskuyl
Department of Rheumatology 4A42, VU University Medical Centre, De Boelelaan 1117, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ae.voskuyl@vumc.nl

Accepted 18 August 2004

Keywords: adverse events; infections; infliximab; rheumatoid arthritis; safety

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

Infliximab is highly effective and relatively safe for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical trials.^1–5 This prospective cohort study was undertaken to determine adverse events, in particular, infections in patients with RA treated with infliximab in daily clinical practice.

We treated 168 patients with RA between 1 April 2000 and 1 October 2002, 82% female, with a median disease duration of 10 years (range 1–49). Inclusion criteria were 28 joint count Disease Activity Score (DAS28) of >3.5 and failure of two disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, including methotrexate. Patients with heart failure or with a malignancy 5 years before screening were excluded. After the alert about tuberculosis,⁶ patients starting with infliximab treatment were screened for that disease.

All patients were treated with an initial infliximab dose of 3 mg/kg (weeks 0, 2, 6, and subsequently, every 8 weeks). When the response was insufficient—that is, a decrease in . . . [Full text of this article]

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