Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29166919›Full record

ArticleArthritis research & therapy2017

Similar short-term clinical response to high-dose versus low-dose methotrexate in monotherapy and combination therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Sytske Anne Bergstra, Cornelia F Allaart, Rosaline van den Berg, Arvind Chopra, Nimmisha Govind, Tom W J Huizinga, Robert B M Landewe

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 27% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Optimising low-dose methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis-A review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2019
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Sytske Anne BergstraDepartment of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. s.a.bergstra@lumc.nl.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7136-5248
Cornelia F AllaartDepartment of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Rosaline van den BergDepartment of Rheumatology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Arvind ChopraCenter for Rheumatic Diseases, Pune, India.
Nimmisha GovindUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Tom W J HuizingaDepartment of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Robert B M LandeweAmsterdam Rheumatology & Immunology Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Leiden University Medical Center · NLErasmus MC · NLUniversity of the Witwatersrand · ZAZuyderland Medisch Centrum · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAiming at rapid decrease of disease activity, there has been a trend to start with higher doses of methotrexate (MTX) in patients newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), both as monotherapy and in combination with other antirheumatic drugs. We aimed to study the relationship between clinical response and MTX dose as monotherapy or combination therapy in patients with early RA.

methodsDisease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD)-naive patients with early RA, from a large international observational database, the METEOR database, were selected if MTX was part of their initial treatment. Patients were divided into four groups: MTX monotherapy, MTX + convention synthetic (cs)DMARDs, MTX + glucocorticoids or MTX + biologic (b)DMARDs. MTX dose was dichotomized: low dose ≤10 mg/week; high dose ≥15 mg/week. Linear mixed model analyses for the Disease Activity Score (DAS), DAS in 28 joints (DAS28) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) were performed in each medication group, with MTX dose and time as covariates. Outcomes were assessed from baseline until 3-6 months follow up. Associations were adjusted for potential confounding by indication using propensity score (PS) modelling.

resultsFor patients starting MTX monotherapy (n = 523), MTX + csDMARDs (n = 266) or MTX + glucocorticoids (n = 615), the PS-adjusted effects of MTX dose (high versus low) on the DAS, DAS28 and HAQ were small and not clinically meaningful. Patients starting MTX + bDMARDs were disregarded due to low numbers (n =11).

conclusionsIn patients newly diagnosed with RA, no clinical benefit of high compared to low initial MTX doses was found for MTX monotherapy or for MTX combination therapy with csDMARDs or glucocorticoids.

Indexed as

AdultAntirheumatic AgentsArthritis, RheumatoidBiological ProductsDose-Response Relationship, DrugDrug Therapy, CombinationFemaleGlucocorticoidsHumansLinear ModelsMaleMethotrexateMiddle AgedPropensity ScoreSurveys and QuestionnairesTreatment OutcomeAntirheumatic AgentsBiological ProductsGlucocorticoidsMethotrexateCombination therapyDoseMethotrexateOutcome measuresRheumatoid arthritis

Identifiers

PMID29166919
PMCPMC5700534
OpenAlexW2770001125

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.