Efficacy and safety of additional use of tacrolimus in patients with early
rheumatoid arthritis with inadequate response to DMARDs--a multicenter,
double-blind, parallel-group trial.
Author(s): Kawai S, Takeuchi T, Yamamoto K, Tanaka Y, Miyasaka N.
Affiliation(s): Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Toho University School
of Medicine, 6-11-1 Omori-Nishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan.
skawai@med.toho-u.ac.jp
Publication date & source: 2011, Mod Rheumatol. , 21(5):458-68
In this trial, we investigated the safety and efficacy of tacrolimus used in
addition to standard antirheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Tacrolimus 3 mg or placebo was orally administered once daily for 52 weeks in a
double-blind manner to patients with early active rheumatoid arthritis receiving
other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). A total of 123 patients
were randomized to the tacrolimus group (61 patients) and to the placebo group
(62 patients). In the tacrolimus group, 70.5% achieved a clinical response
according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20 criteria, whereas 45.2% in
the placebo group did so (P = 0.005). The tacrolimus group also showed
significant improvement in terms of the European League Against Rheumatism
(EULAR) response criteria of "good or moderate" versus the placebo group (86.9
vs. 56.5%, respectively). Likewise, significantly more patients in the tacrolimus
group versus the placebo group achieved remission of the Disease Activity Score
in 28 joints (DAS28) (45 vs. 21%). The mean changes in the Total Sharp Score and
erosion score were lower in the tacrolimus group, but the differences between the
two groups were not significant. There was no significant difference between the
two groups in the incidence of adverse events. Based on these results, we can
conclude that the additional use of tacrolimus in patients with early rheumatoid
arthritis with inadequate response to other DMARD treatments is useful, and this
could become one of the treatment options for these rheumatoid arthritis
patients.
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