Treating Early Arthritis Reduces RA Risk

Early treatment of patients with undifferentiated arthritis (UA) delayed the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a recent meta-analysis.

For their analysis, the researchers reviewed data from 9 studies that assessed the effects of various therapies on the development of RA among patients with UA compared with placebo or no treatment. Therapies evaluated in the studies included methotrexate, abatacept, infliximab, intra-articular or intramuscular glucocorticoids, and radiation synovectomy.
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Compared with placebo or no treatment, treatment was associated with lower rates of RA at 12 months (odds ratio [OR] 0.49). Patients who received methotrexate were less likely develop RA at 12 months compared with those who did not receive methotrexate (OR 0.13), but this difference was not significant at 30 or 60 months.

Overall, analyses showed that most interventions were associated with a decreased risk for developing RA at 12 months compared with placebo, and this was statistically significant for methotrexate and intramuscular methylprednisolone (OR 0.16 and 0.72, respectively).

“Treating patients with UA resulted in a statistically significant delay in the development of RA, with the largest effect observed for methotrexate,” the researchers concluded. “These findings suggest that there is a window of opportunity to treat patients with UA early, to delay subsequent progression to RA.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Lopez-Olivo MA, Kakpovbia-Eshareturi V, des Bordes J, Barbo A, Christensen R, Suarez-Almazor ME. Treating early undifferentiated arthritis: a systematic review and meta-Analysis of direct and indirect trial evidence [published online November 21, 2017]. Arthritis Care Res. doi:10.1002/acr.23474.