Conditions: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 68
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This open-label, single-arm study will assess the use of glucocorticoids (GC) in daily clinical practice and will evaluate the dose reduction of glucocorticoids once low disease activity is achieved in patients with rheumatoid arthritis tre ated with GC and background RoActemra/Actemra (tocilizumab) 8mg/kg intravenously every 4 weeks. In the non-interventional phase, the use of GC in daily clinical Belgian practice will be evaluated and described. This period of maximum 6 mont hs will allow those patients to obtain the inclusion criteria for the secondary interventional phase. In the interventional phase, a systematic GC dose reductio n schedule will be evaluated in patients having achieved low disease activity wh ile receiving the same background therapy with RoActemra/Actemra 8 mg/kg. Methyl prednisolone will be given from a starting dose of \>/= 1 mg to \</=20 mg orally d aily and will be tapered down. The anticipated study duration is up to 13 months

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: None

Interventions: intervention 1: methylprednisolone intervention 2: tocilizumab [RoActemra/Actemra]
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: starting dose \>/= 1 mg and \</= 20 mg orally daily, according to dose-reduction schedule intervention 2: background therapy: 8 mg/kg iv every 4 weeks

Protocol document: