抄録
The mainstay of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment is the application of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). New and highly effective DMARDs have continued to emerge particularly in recent years that include biologic agents, which target tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor and T-cell costimulation. Furthermore, treatment strategies have changed in order to perform early intervention and to maintain tight disease control thereafter. While clinical and observational trials on drugs and strategies have been highly enlightening, rheumatologists are currently overwhelmed by this information, which does not always allow one to decide on the best treatment strategy. The management of RA with biologic agents may also differ among rheumatologists. In this paper, several aspects of biologic agents are evaluated using the data of current literature, and strategic algorithms for RA are also described.
