Study: Remicade Plus Cyclosporin Help Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis

Treatment with Remicade (infliximab) in combination with cyclosporin A can offer improvement to patients suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis that has proven difficult to treat with traditional drug therapy, according to researchers at the University of Ioannina in Greece.

Researchers developed a study to see whether Remicade could be used in combination with cyclosporin A in patients with refractory (difficult to treat) rheumatoid arthritis who cannot tolerate methotrexate, the common treatment for the disease.

Eighteen patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis receiving low doses of cyclosporin A and prednisone were treated with Remicade given through an IV. The patients were given Remicade at the start of the study and two, six, and every eight weeks thereafter for a period of one year. Clinical improvement was measured according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20 percent response criteria.

Eighty percent of the patients receiving the combination treatment with cyclosporin A and Remicade achieved the ACR 20 percent response criteria, and 39 percent reached the 50 percent response criteria. Also, a 76 percent reduction in swollen and tender joints was achieved by the study's participants. In general, the treatment was well tolerated, according to the report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Researchers concluded that multiple treatments with Remicade and low doses of cyclosporin A produce improvement in patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis.

Other sources: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases