Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the real life practice

Aim

To evaluate the established pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the real life clinical practice and tocompare it with the current guidelines.

Material and methods

We conducted an open pharmacoepidemiological study and evaluated 230 and 90 medicalrecords of patients with RA who were admitted to the specialized department from January 2013 to April 2014 and from January to October 2017, respectively.

Results

Both in 2013-2014 and 2017, two thirds of patients presented with moderate to high activity of RA. In the two periods of the study, 84.0% and 93.4% of patients, respectively, were treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs prior to admission to the hospital. During hospitalization, 95.6% and 100% of patients, respectively, received corticosteroids and/or NSAIDs. At discharge from the hospital, monotherapy with drugs with proven efficacy(methotrexate, leflunomide, sulfasalasine) was recommended to 81.0% of patients in 2013-2014 and to 83.4% of patientsin 2017. The average doses of methotrexate were 13.0±4.1and 10.7±2.8 mg per week, respectively.

Conclusion

Inpatient pharmacotherapy of RA corresponded to the current guidelines.

Key words

Rheumatoid arthritis, pharmacoepidemiology, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, corticosteroids.