The use of biological drugs can reduce the need for knee and hip replacements, a European conference has heard.
The drugs successfully reduced the rate of replacements among patients with rheumatoid arthritis – but without reducing the overall national demand for the operations, Danish researchers reported.
They reported their findings to the conference of the European League Against Rheumatism in Madrid, Spain.
The study tracks the impact of new guidelines on the use of biological disease modifying antirheumatic drugs in 2002.
It found that before 2002 the rate of replacements was increasing by 0.19% annually among these patients. After 2002, it fell by 0.2% a year.
Researcher Dr Lene Dreyer, from the Centre for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases, Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark, said: "Our findings show a clear downward trend in these two operations in rheumatoid arthritis patients in Denmark since the addition of bDMARDs to treatment protocols.
"Also, the overall pattern of our findings is in line with those recently reported from England and Wales.
"In addition, a more widespread use of conventional DMARDs and the treat to target strategy may have contributed to this positive development."
* Researchers have found a blood test for cardiovascular risk in lupus patients with no symptoms, the conference heard.
The researchers report that the biomarker, High Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T, indicates an eight times increased risk of having plaques in the carotid arteries, researcher Dr Karim Sacre, from the Bichat Hospital, Paris, France, reported.
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