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The role of anti-malarials in rheumatoid arthritis — the American experienceStanford University School of Medicine, 1000 Welch Road, Suite 203, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
Stanford University School of Medicine, 1000 Welch Road, Suite 203, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease with significant morbidity and functional disability. The traditional treatment for RA relied on the use of NSAIDs early in the disease course, followed by disease-modifying agents later. More recently, the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have become the mainstay of RA therapy because of the recognition of their superior efficacy/toxicity profile. The antimalarial drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are some of the most commonly used DMARDs in the manage ment of RA. They have been shown to be significantly more effective than NSAIDs alone in several clinical trials, and have a benign toxicity profile. A combination of hydroxy chloroquine with methotrexate appears to reduce significantly the hepatic toxicity of metho trexate. In this review, we summarize the efficacy and toxicity profiles of the antimalarial drugs in rheumatoid arthritis.
Key Words: rheumatoid arthritis • chloroquine • hydroxychloroquine • combination therapy • toxicity • review
Lupus, Vol. 5, No. 1 suppl,
S41-S44 (1996) |
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