Background and Aims: To study the efficacy and safety of etanercept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) case definitions and their clinical associations.
Methods: Patients with RA who were treated with etanercept have been followed from May 2005. Twenty-five mg twice a week of etanercept was injected into each patient. We assessed the ACR revised criteria for 20％ improvement (ACR20), ACR50, and ACR70 response rates, the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) scores, disease activity score (DAS) 28, serum markers such as CRP, and ESR were assessed. Safety measures included monitoring of adverse events and laboratory values.
Results: A total of 35 patients with RA were studied. The female to male ratio was 5 to 1, and the mean age was 58.9 years (range 37-77). The mean duration of disease was 12.8 years (range 0.5-49). 33 patients were improved in CRP levels after 2 weeks. DAS 28 of 65 patients has improved from 5.08 to 3.8 (2W), 3.5 (4W), and 3.0 (8W); respectively. Etanercept was withdrawn in only one patient due to exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.
Conclusions: The improvements in both functional ability and physician-based efficacy measures seen with etanercept demonstrated the early efficacy of etanercept in patients with RA. One patient withdrew from etanercept treatment because of adverse drug reactions.
