Published in:
01-08-2011 | Rapid Communication
The REAL database reveals no significant risk of serious infection during treatment with a methotrexate dose of more than 8 mg/week in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Authors:
Ryoko Sakai, Yukiko Komano, Michi Tanaka, Toshihiro Nanki, Ryuji Koike, Atsuo Nakajima, Tatsuya Atsumi, Shinsuke Yasuda, Yoshiya Tanaka, Kazuyoshi Saito, Shigeto Tohma, Takao Fujii, Atsushi Ihata, Naoto Tamura, Atsushi Kawakami, Takahiko Sugihara, Satoshi Ito, Nobuyuki Miyasaka, Masayoshi Harigai
Published in:
Modern Rheumatology
|
Issue 4/2011
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Excerpt
Methotrexate (MTX) is recommended as a first-line disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) for the treatment of both early and established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) [
1] and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) [
2]. The use of MTX was approved in Japan in 1999. However, in April 2010, the officially approved maximum weekly dosage in Japan was limited to 8 mg, which is much less than that in Europe and the United States. Although many Japanese rheumatologists prescribe MTX at dosages higher than 8 mg/week (high-dose MTX) when clinically indicated, there have been no pharmacoepidemiological studies of the long-term safety of high-dose MTX in Japanese RA patients. …
