| Objective:To study the efficacy and safety of different maintenance treatments inpatients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in sustained remission.Methods:114patients who met the1987American College of Rheumatology(ACR)Classification criteria for RA were enrolled into the study.The clinical data of patientswho had reached their RA remission and adhered to long-term follow-up in our hosp-ital were collected and analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into3different groups by the maintenance treatments.The MTX（methotrexate）+LEF（leflunomide）group,MTX group and the LEF group were involved.Generaldemographic data, relapse rate in different time periods and incidence of adverseevents were compared. Normal distribution data were analyzed by one-way ANOVAtest, none-normal distribution data by Kruskal-Wallis H(H) test, count data byChi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, and correlation analysis by Pearson.Results:During the first6months, the relapse rate among the MTX+LEF group, MTXgroup and the LEF group were1.75%,8.57%,15.79%respectively,but the differencewere not statistically significant（P>0.05）. At the12th,18th and24th months, therelapse rate of LEF group were higher than MTX+LEF group and the MTXgroup,and the difference were statistically significan（tP<0.05）, Of which at the24th month,the relapse rate in each group were34.78%(MTX+LEF group),31.58%(MTX group),and81.82%(LEF group).During the maintenance treatment time of each groups,theincidence of adverse events were37.29%(MTX+LEF group),5.56%(MTX group),15.79%(LEF group) respectively. MTX+LEF group was significant higher than theMTX group and LEF group. Conclusions: During the maintenance therapy periods for RA in remission,the relapserate of MTX group was lower than LEF group,and was quite to MTX+LEFgroup.Whereas,the drug adverse events occurred less than MTX+LEFgroup.Therefore,MTX using alone may be a safer, more effective and more economicalmaintenance treatment for RA patients in long-term sustained remission. |
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