Cyclosporin in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Overview

Cyclosporin A (CsA) is a disease modifying drug of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and it probably inhibitsX-ray progression of RA and it can thus be characterized as disease controlling -DC-ART. Itsindication is not only RA refractory to treatment with other DMARDs but also early RA which ishighly active, and the patient has several negative prognostic indicators. Nephrotoxicity of cyclos-porin can be counteracted by correct selection of patients, proper monitoring of the safety oftreatment and adherence to recommended dosage. The maximal recommended dose is 5 mg/kg/day.The position of cyclosporin in combined treatment of RA is important. It proves most usefulcombined with methotrexate but recently work was published on combined treatment of CsA andsulfasalazine as well.

Key words:
rheumatoid arthritis, cyclosporin, disease controlling drugs, X-ray progression