INFO - New standards of treatment for early RA

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New Standards of Treatment for Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

Musings

A. Paget, MD, FACP, FACR

Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology,

Hospital for Special Surgery

The ph P. Routh Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of

Cornell University

Posted 15 Oct 2003

Excerpt:

It is for this reason that RA patients should be started on a single

DMARD therapy within the first 2-4 months of symptom onset, this being

rapidly stepped up with regard to both dose and the addition of other

conventional DMARDs, in an attempt to suppress all disease activity.

Nothing less than the attainment of no evidence of disease (NED) is

acceptable because inflammation needs to be thought of as an

inherently damaging process if left to its own devices. Only with time

and new information might we be able to correctly characterize the

true personality and intent of the illness.

http://www.hss.edu/professional-conditions_13577.asp

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Not an MD