ArticleJournal of clinical medicine2018
Risk of Infection with Methotrexate Therapy in Inflammatory Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Article in Journal of clinical medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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
58 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Vaccination of immunocompromised individuals: Expert opinion - update 2026].Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2026Guideline
- Infection Risk in Dermatology Patients Receiving Next-Generation Medication: A Meta-Analysis of JAK Inhibitors and Biologics.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Pulmonary tuberculosis occurring during the diagnosis and treatment of sarcoidosis complicated by chylothorax: A case report.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Article
- International travel considerations for patients with systemic autoimmune inflammatory diseases in the era of novel immunosuppressive therapies.Rheumatology international · 2026Review
- CD39 mRNA therapy attenuates localized acute inflammation: A novel anti-inflammatory strategy using cationic nanoliposomes.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2026Article
- Ten-year hip and knee arthroplasty implant survival in patients with inflammatory arthritis receiving methotrexate monotherapy compared with osteoarthritis: a registry-based data linkage study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Interference of Immunosuppressive Therapies with Cellular Antimicrobial Activity AgainstInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Advances in nanotechnology for the diagnosis and management of autoimmune diseases.Asian journal of pharmaceutical sciences · 2026Review
- Risk of infection in patients with early inflammatory arthritis: results from a large UK prospective observational cohort study.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Observational
- Comparing the efficacy and safety of cyclophosphamide, infliximab and methotrexate in neurosarcoidosis: a multicenter retrospective study.Journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Prurigo Nodularis in a Patient With Primary B-Cell Immunodeficiency Successfully Treated With Low-Dose Methotrexate: A Case Report.Clinical case reports · 2025Article
- Cryptococcosis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis following glucocorticoid and JAK inhibitor therapy: a case description on stabilization with tocilizumab.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Low prevalence of methotrexate intolerance in rheumatoid arthritis: a South African study.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Article
- Effects of Dietary Yeast β-1,3/1,6-D-Glucan on Immunomodulation in RAW 264.7 Cells and Methotrexate-Treated Rat Models.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Analysis of factors influencing target PASI responses and side effects of methotrexate monotherapy in plaque psoriasis: a multicenter study of 1521 patients.Archives of dermatological research · 2024Article
- Management of Scleritis in Older Adults.Drugs & aging · 2024Article
- Predictors of serious infections in rheumatoid arthritis-a prospective Brazilian cohort.Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2024Observational
- Article
- Infections in psoriatic arthritis: association with treatment.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2024Review
- Infections in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: The Contribution of Primary Immune Defects Versus Treatment-Induced Immunosuppression.European journal of rheumatology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the risk of infection in adults with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRDs) treated with methotrexate. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing methotrexate versus placebo in adults using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases from 1980 to August 2017. The primary outcome was the risk of infection associated with methotrexate therapy. We chose a random effect model to summarize adverse event outcomes as risk ratios (RRs) and related 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Twelve RCTs (total patients 1146) met the inclusion criteria for our main analysis, and ten for risk of serious infection (total patients 906). Overall, methotrexate was associated with increased risk of infection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (RR: 1.25; 95% CI, 1.01⁻1.56; p = 0.04; I² = 0%), but not in other non-RA IRD populations. There was no increased risk of total infections (RR: 1.14; 95% CI, 0.98⁻1.34; p = 0.10; I² = 0%) or serious infections (RR: 0.76; 95% CI, 0.11⁻5.15; p = 0.78; I² = 0%) in all included IRDs. Conclusively, methotrexate use in IRDs is associated with a higher risk of all infections in RA, but not in other non-RA (IRD) populations. There is no increased risk of serious infections.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.