Trial reportArthritis research & therapy2010
Early combination disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy and tight disease control improve long-term radiologic outcome in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: the 11-year results of the Finnish Rheumatoid Arthritis Combination Therapy trial.
Trial report in Arthritis research & therapy, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 108 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, glucocorticoids and tofacitinib: a systematic literature review informing the 2013 update of the EULAR recommendations for management of rheumatoid arthritis.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2014Pooled it
- My treatment approach to rheumatoid arthritis.Mayo Clinic proceedings · 2012Guideline
- Long-term clinical outcomes in early rheumatoid arthritis that was treated-to-target in the BeSt and IMPROVED studies.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Trial
- Feasibility of tailored treatment based on risk stratification in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2014Trial
- Optimising Conventional Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2026Review
- Article
- Switching from TNFα inhibitor to tacrolimus as maintenance therapy in rheumatoid arthritis after achieving low disease activity with TNFα inhibitors and methotrexate: 24-week result from a non-randomized, prospective, active-controlled trial.Arthritis research & therapy · 2021Article
- Therapeutic Options and Cost-Effectiveness for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment.Current rheumatology reports · 2020Review
- Treatment strategies are more important than drugs in the management of rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2020Review
- Budget impact analysis of an early identification and referral model for diagnosing patients with suspected rheumatoid arthritis in Ireland.Rheumatology advances in practice · 2020Article
- Eight-year survival study of first-line tumour necrosis factor α inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis: real-world data from a university centre registry.Rheumatology advances in practice · 2019Article
- Cost-effectiveness of different treat-to-target strategies in rheumatoid arthritis: results from the DREAM registry.BMC rheumatology · 2019Article
- Radiographic progression in early rheumatoid arthritis patients following initial combination versus step-up treat-to-target therapy in daily clinical practice: results from the DREAM registry.BMC rheumatology · 2018Article
- The impact of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody status on the management of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: observational study results from Lithuania.Acta medica Lituanic · 2018Article
- A 4-year non-randomized comparative phase-IV study of early rheumatoid arthritis: integrative anthroposophic medicine for patients with preference against DMARDs versus conventional therapy including DMARDs for patients without preference.Patient preference and adherence · 2018Article
- Article
- The Efficacy and Safety of the Combination of Total Glucosides of Peony and Leflunomide for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2016Review
- Article
- Is non-biological treatment of rheumatoid arthritis as good as biologics?World journal of orthopedics · 2015Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionEarly treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been shown to retard the development of joint damage for a period of up to 5 years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the radiologic progression beyond that time in patients with early RA initially treated with a combination of three disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or a single DMARD.
methodsA cohort of 199 patients with early active RA were initially randomized to receive treatment with a combination of methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and hydroxychloroquine with prednisolone (FIN-RACo), or treatment with a single DMARD (initially, sulfasalazine) with or without prednisolone (SINGLE). After 2 years, the drug-treatment strategy became unrestricted, but still targeted remission. The radiographs of hands and feet were analyzed by using the Larsen score at baseline, 2, 5, and 11 years, and the radiographs of large joints, at 11 years.
resultsSixty-five patients in the FIN-RACo and 65 in the SINGLE group had radiographs of hands and feet available at baseline and at 11 years. The mean change from baseline to 11 years in Larsen score was 17 (95% CI, 12 to 26) in the FIN-RACo group and 27 (95% CI, 22 to 33) in the SINGLE group (P=0.037). In total, 87% (95% CI, 74 to 94) and 72% (95% CI, 58 to 84) of the patients in the FIN-RACo and the SINGLE treatment arms, respectively, had no erosive changes in large joints at 11 years.
conclusionsTargeting to remission with tight clinical controls results in low radiologic progression in most RA patients. Patients treated initially with a combination of DMARDs have less long-term radiologic damage than do those treated initially with DMARD monotherapy.
trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN18445519.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.