SynthesisPloS one2020
Effect of methotrexate use on the development of type 2 diabetes in rheumatoid arthritis patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanisms of diabetic cardiomyopathy: Focus on inflammation.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2025Review
- Cardiovascular Risk Factor and Atherosclerosis in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).Current cardiology reports · 2025Review
- Methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis - ongoing debate about dosage and route of administration.Reumatologia · 2025Article
- Incidence of diabetic retinopathy in anti-tnf treated rheumatic disease patients with type 2 diabetes.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2024Article
- Management of a Patient with Cardiovascular Disease Should Include Assessment of Primary and Secondary Immunodeficiencies: Part 2-Secondary Immunodeficiencies.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Article
- Tocilizumab Reduces Depression Risk in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Review
- Mechanistic and therapeutic links between rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes mellitus.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2023Review
- Serum metabolomic profiling identifies potential biomarkers in arthritis in older adults: an exploratory study.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2023Article
- Diabetes-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs: The Roles of DMARDs as Glucose-Lowering Agents.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Review
- Risk of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus Associated with Antirheumatic Drugs in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Nationwide Population Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Psoriasis in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Treatment Challenges.American journal of clinical dermatology · 2021Review
- Methotrexate attenuates vascular inflammation through an adenosine-microRNA-dependent pathway.eLife · 2021Article
- Mechanisms and Therapeutic Prospects of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Through the Inflammatory Response.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Review
- 2020 Clinical Highlights in Rheumatology.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2020Article
- Article
- Methotrexate and cardiovascular prevention: an appraisal of the current evidence.Therapeutic advances in cardiovascular diseaseReview
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe high risk of cardiovascular disease is well recognized in rheumatoid arthritis. Type 2 diabetes also attributes to this increase in risk. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory condition, which aggravates insulin resistance, placing the patients at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and subsequent cardiovascular outcomes. Methotrexate treatment, as a gold standard anti-inflammatory drug in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has shown beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. However, its impact on type 2 diabetes is still unknown.
objectiveTo assess the strength of the association between exposure to methotrexate and the rate of development of type 2 diabetes in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
methodsAll rheumatoid arthritis studies reporting the use of methotrexate as an exposure and type 2 diabetes as an outcome were searched until March 2020 using MEDLINE, Cochrane and Scopus databases. Studies were included if the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis was made according to current guidelines or by a rheumatologist, and if there was information about methotrexate exposure and the type 2 diabetes outcome. The author and an independent assessor evaluated the articles for eligibility. Meta-analyses combined relative risk estimates from each study where raw counts were available.
resultsSixteen studies reporting sufficient data for inclusion in the meta-analyses were identified. Methotrexate showed a promising effect on the risk of type 2 diabetes as this risk decreased in rheumatoid arthritis patients using methotrexate (Relative risk 0.48, 95% CI 0.16, 1.43).
conclusionRheumatoid arthritis patients on methotrexate treatment had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to rheumatoid arthritis patients not exposed to methotrexate. This finding highlights the need for future, randomized control trials to confirm the beneficial effect of methotrexate on type 2 diabetes in the rheumatoid arthritis population.
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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.