Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1998 , Vol 1 , Num 4

Romatoid Artrit Tedavisinde Metotreksat'ın Etkisi

Betül Turan 1 ,Konçuy Sivrioğlu 2 ,Jale İrdesel 3 ,Selçuk Küçükoğlu 1 ,Nilgün Çakın 4
1 Uludağ Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Bursa
2 Uludağ Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Bursa
3 Uludağ Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı,Bursa
4 Uludağ Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Bursa

The efficay of methotrexate on thetreatment of rheumatoid arthritis -Fourty two patients with RA (37 women 7 men) were included in this study in order to determine the efficay and side effects of methotrexate (MTX) treatment in RA: The MTX treatment in doses of 7.5 mg/week was applied to these patients at least for one year. We have observed significant improvement in night pain, day time pain, morning stiffness, number of inflame joints, erythrocyte sedimantation rate at 3rd month of treatment in compare to the beginning. Side effects of MTX therapy were noted in 6 of 42 patients. Gastrointestinal toxicity was reported at the 3 rd and 12th month in 4 patients, elevation of liver transaminases at the 6th in 1 patient, fatigue at the 6th month in 1 patients. We concluded that MTX is an effective drug in the treatment of RA, the response to the durg begins from the third month and side effects are acceptable.

Keywords : Rheumatoid arthritis, methotrexate, efficay, side effect.