Long acting somatostatin analogue for the treatment of refractory RA

Table 1 Patients' characteristics at the beginning of the study Patient Age Duration of RA Disease stage* Drugs used before somatostatin[dagger] Drugs used while taking somatostatin Rheumatoid factor 1 60 13 III 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 Indometacin + 2 66 20 III 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 Indometacin + 3 70 25 III 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 Indometacin + 4 60 7 II 1, 3, 6, 9 Piroxicam + 5 63 30 III 1, 2, 6, 9 Indometacin - 6 55 8 II 1, 3, 6, 7, 9 Indometacin + 7 60 15 III 1, 4, 6, 7, 9 Indometacin + 8 42 8 II 1, 2, 6, 9 Piroxicam + 9 55 7 II 1, 2, 6, 8, 9 Indometacin + 10 57 14 III 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 Indometacin + 11 55 6 II 1, 5, 6, 9 Indometacin + *Classified using the criteria of Steinbrocker, et al. [dagger]Drugs: 1, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; 2, hydroxychoroquine; 3, gold; 4, penicillamine; 5, methotrexate; 6, corticosteroids; 7, cyclosporin; 8, interferon α; 9, sulfasalazine. Koseoglu and Koseoglu conducted a shorter study of only eight weeks as compared with our 14 week study, where we saw continued improvement after eight weeks. [...]accepted American College of Rheumatology criteria for the evaluation of response to treatment in patients with RA were not used, making it difficult to compare the results.