Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a rheumatic disease that could be disabling if not treated. The aim of RA therapy is to resolve tenderness and swelling in the joints. The present study was conducted to compare two methods of RA treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and DMARDs with biologic drugs in two groups of patients.
Materials and methods: The present study was a nonrandomized clinical trial which was conducted from July to September 2017 on 110 patients who were selected based on the American College of Rheumatology (2010) criteria for RA. Patients were divided into two groups of 55: Groups A and B. For the treatment of Group A, prednisolone along with one or two drugs from the DMARDs combinations was used. Group B received one biologic drug besides with the drugs of the group A. T-test and covariance analysis was used to compare the outcomes of both groups.
Results: Disease activity score (DAS-28) at the beginning of the study was 4.23 (0.81) in Group A and 4.51 (0.7) in Group B (P = 0.05). At the end of the study, DAS-28 was 3.52 (0.79) in Group A and 3.75 (0.85) in Group B (P = 0.1). DAS-28 activity index had a significant difference between both two groups at the beginning of the study (P = 0.05), but at the end of the study, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.1).
Conclusions: Simultaneous use of DMARDs and biologic drugs in RA patients could lead to improvement the disease symptoms and decrease the severity and activity of the disease.
Keywords: Biologic; disease activity score-28; disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs; rheumatoid arthritis.