1. A multicentre trial of bucillamine in the treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis (SNOW study)
- Author
-
Kenji Ichikawa, Akira Sagawa, Masato Shimizu, Atsushi Fujisaku, Katsunori Ohnishi, Hirofumi Ohsaki, Izumi Yasuda, Masaya Mukai, and Yoshiharu Amasaki
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,musculoskeletal diseases ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Patient Dropouts ,Adolescent ,Combination therapy ,Arthritis ,Arthritis, Rheumatoid ,Young Adult ,Rheumatology ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Cysteine ,Young adult ,Child ,skin and connective tissue diseases ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ,Remission Induction ,Bucillamine ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Surgery ,Clinical trial ,Early Diagnosis ,Methotrexate ,Treatment Outcome ,Antirheumatic Agents ,Erythrocyte sedimentation rate ,Female ,business ,Rheumatism ,medicine.drug - Abstract
In this study, we enrolled early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients at multiple institutes who fulfilled the American Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of RA, and followed the clinical results of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment prospectively. With the aim of developing therapeutic guidelines using the disease activity score 28 (DAS28) as disease indices, we investigated the usefulness of bucillamine (BUC), one of the most widely used DMARDs in Japan. Eighty-one patients with early RA who had not previously been treated with DMARDs were suitable for BUC therapy as first-choice treatment. After 24 months of treatment, at least moderate improvement was seen in 87.5% of patients using the DAS28 erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). After 24 months of BUC therapy, 7 patients (43.8%) met the remission criterion of DAS28 (ESR)
- Published
- 2011