Abstract
Thirty-eight patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were evaluated by retrospective study, in which the effect of methotrexate (MTX) and bucillamine (Buc) on radiologic progression were analyzed. Nineteen patients were treated by MTX with a dosage of 2.5-7.5 mg once a week (MTX group) . Another 19 patients were treated by Buc with a daily use of 100-300 mg (Buc group) . All these selected patients were administrated MTX or Buc over 6 months without serious side effects. Patients who had side effects were excluded from this study. The term of medication with MTX was 12.5±3. 8 months (mean ± SD), and that of Buc was 14.0±3.1 months. There was no significant difference in the clinical background between two groups.
Radiologic progression was evaluated by erosion score; [post-pre], erosion index; [ (post-pre) /month], and erosion rate; [ (post-pre) /pre] . Erosion index of Buc group (0.16±0.2) was significantly less than that of MTX group (0.27 ± 0.3) (P<0.05) . Although erosion score and erosion rate of Buc group were lower than those of MTX group, they did not reach the statistical significance. Laboratory findings were also improved after Buc treatment.
Our data suggest that Buc was more effective than MTX on retardation of radiologic progression in RA.
