May etanercept and PTH (1-34) association heal erosions in early rheumatoid arthritis? A pilot study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Teriparatide in the context of rheumatoid arthritis in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by the formation in the joints of an inflammatory tissue, which causes the appearance of localized erosions on the margins of the joints.

The molecular mechanism that causes the bone erosion is multifactorial.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Twenty adult patients with active RA diagnosed according to American Rheumatism Association (ARA) criteria at least 6 months before study begin were enrolled.

Only patients affected by established RA (6 to 18 months from symptoms beginning) were recruited.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and pilot study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Teriparatide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Teriparatide study would be practical.

The methods mention a period of 12 months.

Evaluation of eventual healing of arthritic erosions by magnetic resonance imaging was performed at time zero and then at twelve months.

The following evaluation was assessed at baseline and after 12 months according to the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) definitions: number of erosion and presence or absence of synovitis, effusion and bone oedema.

A comparative examination of quantitative and qualitative assessment of each parameter was applied.

Plain radiographs of the hands were obtained at baseline and 52 weeks.

Radiographs were scored blindly using the van der Heijde modification of the Sharp method.

What Was Measured

Safety of each treatment was evaluated by means of the adverse events (AES) evaluation and report.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antirheumatic Agents, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Endpoint Determination, Etanercept, Immunoglobulin G, Joints and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Teriparatide in people with rheumatoid arthritis over 12 months.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 10 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (European review for medical and pharmacological sciences), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Teriparatide compound page, Rheumatoid arthritis research.