Little is known about the functional outcome of @entity309 ( @entity309 ) in Africans treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). We describe our experience with 182 @entity309 @entity1 seen at a tertiary hospital in South Africa. During the median follow-up period of 3.3 years, the proportion of @entity1 with severe functional disability (American College of Rheumatology [ACR] functional classes [FCs] 3 and 4) declined significantly from 48.9% at presentation to 30.8% at last visit (P =.0006). There was a significant fall in the median Westergren erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (46-28 mm/hour, P <.00001) and @entity1851 ( @entity1851 ) (19-15.5 mg/L, P =.006) over this period. Logistic regression analysis showed that the factors that negatively affected functional outcome at last visit were severe functional disability at presentation (odds ratio [OR] = 4.1, P =.0004), delay in referral for specialist care > 2 years (OR = 3.1, P =.02), and ESR at last visit > 28 mm/hour (OR = 3.2, P =.002). DMARDs and oral @entity288 were prescribed in 93.1% of @entity1 at presentation and 60.4% of @entity1 at last visit. Life-table analysis showed that the survival time with @entity1499 ( @entity1500 ) use was significantly longer compared with the other DMARDs (P =.0002). A total of only 37 surgical procedures were performed on 21 @entity1 . This retrospective study shows that despite the late presentation and severe disease, @entity1 do improve on DMARD therapy in the medium term. The study highlights the need for prospective studies to assess the efficacy and safety of DMARDs, particularly in @entity66 , in the developing countries where biologics are unlikely to be affordable in the foreseeable future.

A longitudinal study of XXXX in South Africans.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity1851 :: ('1401', 'Gene') :: ['C-reactive protein', 'CRP'] @entity66 :: ('MESH:D004194', 'Disease') :: ['early disease'] @entity1500 :: ('CHEBI:44185', 'Chemical') :: ['MTX'] @entity1499 :: ('MESH:D008727', 'Chemical') :: ['methotrexate'] @entity309 :: ('MESH:D001172', 'Disease') :: ['rheumatoid arthritis', 'RA'] @entity288 :: ('MESH:D000305', 'Chemical') :: ['corticosteroids']
@entity309 :: (MESH:D001172,Disease) :: ['rheumatoid arthritis']
