Monday, November 10, 2014

Treatment Study for Rheumatoid Arthritis

                Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic auto-immune disease that causes pain and stiffness in the joints, fatigue, bone damage, and, eventually loss of mobility. Due to no known cure for RA, physicians focus treatment on suppressing disease activity. Therapies show that intensive treatment of early RA can prevent joint damage and improve patients’ quality of life.

                In a two-year study, called ‘CareRA’, researchers and clinicians in the rheumatology unit a University Hospitals Leuven examined various therapies for early RA. Their goal: to find the optimal combination and dosage of three commonly prescribed antirheumatic drugs (methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and leflunomide) in combination with glucocorticoids. 290 early RA patients were divided into three treatment groups. Each group received a different combination therapy: ‘COBRA Classic (methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and a high first dose of glucocorticoids), ‘COBRA Slim’ (methotrexate and a moderate dose of glucocorticoids), or ‘COBRA Avant-Garde’ (methotrexate, leflunomide, and a moderate dose of glucocorticoids). All three strategies showed a similarly high efficacy: disease remission was achieved in 7 in 10 patients after 16 weeks of treatment. But the strategies varied significantly when it came to side effects.
                COBRA Slim Strategy, which calls for the least amount of medication, had half as many side effects as the two other strategies – and was just as effective. The strategy would also be easier to implement in daily practice because it is less complicated. A broader use of this strategy would lead to higher remission rates in the global early RA population and would probably reduce the need for expensive second-line antirheumatic treatment according to the researchers.

                Although this study is innovating, the RA treatment is not yet adequately standardized which leads to treatment inefficiencies. Due to the inefficiencies, more patients will require expensive second-line antirheumatic therapies (biologicals). Around 15 patients can be treated with COBRA Slim strategy which would cost the same price as a year treatment with a biological. Therefore, implementing COBRA Slim could help more people both with money and RA.
Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141110083404.htm

4 comments:

  1. This article was very interesting to read about.It was not surprising that COBRA slim had half as many side effects as the other two groups. Since it is the least amount of medication it would definitely be easier among patients. Hopefully COBRA slim does become standardized so that it is not as expensive and so that it is open to anyone with RA that needs it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice post. A good friend of mine has lupus, an autoimmune disease, along with rheumatoid arthritis, so this article stuck out to me. It is such a good step in the right direction to fight this illness with the COBRA treatments. Although I am curious as to how COBRA slim is less complicated to implement in daily practice compared to the other two COBRA treatments. Overall, great post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that this study will benefit people in the future. My father suffers from severe RA and I wish this COBRA Slim was around 20 years ago when he was diagnosed. I would loved to see him more active and in less pain today but there were not many treatments for RA when he was diagnosed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Arthritis is certifiably not a solitary infection. It includes around 100 distinct conditions, that influence joints and that present one of a kind issues for determination and treatment. Arthritis

    ReplyDelete