A preliminary study of etanercept in the treatment of severe, resistant psoriatic arthritis.

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A preliminary study of etanercept in the treatment of severe, resistant

psoriatic arthritis.

Yazici Y, Erkan D, Lockshin MD

Division of Rheumatology, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Medical College of

Cornell University, New York, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To survey the effectiveness of etanercept in the treatment of severe,

resistant psoriatic arthritis. METHODS: Ten patients coming from the clinical

practice of 5 different rheumatologists and already using etanercept (25 mg

subcutaneously twice weekly) were formally assessed at 3 and 12 months after

etanercept use. RESULTS: All patients had improvement in their arthritis. Five

of the 10 patients had no arthritis, 4 required only etanercept for disease

control at 3 months. At 12 months, 8 of 10 patients were still on etanercept

with continued good response. One patient had to discontinue etanercept due to

osteomyelitis, and one due to increased disease activity. Of 4 patients with

active skin disease, 3 had complete clearing. There were no side effects related

to etanercept in this small, heterogeneously collected group of patients.

CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary and rather favorable experience with etanercept

suggests that properly controlled trials of this agent in psoriatic arthritis

are needed. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Publication Types:

a.. Clinical trial

PMID: 11138337