Over the past decade, the therapeutic approach used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has considerably changed. It remains unclear whether these changes have been accompanied by decreased disease severity and surgical treatment burden at the population level. Therefore, we investigated time trends in antirheumatic drug consumption, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and use of orthopedic surgery among Danish patients with RA.Using medical databases, we identified all patients with RA living in Northern Denmark during 1996-2012. For each calendar year, we computed the annual rate of antirheumatic drug use (1996-2010), the median CRP value in mg/l (1996-2011), and the proportions of patients who underwent hip replacement and other orthopedic procedures (1996-2012).Antirheumatic drug consumption per patient increased 5-fold, from 145.0 defined daily doses (DDD) in 1996 to 695.4 DDD in 2010. Median CRP declined from 20.5 mg/l [interquartile range (IQR), 10.0 to 43.5 mg/l] in 1996 to 10.0 mg/l (IQR, 4.2-17.8 mg/l) in 2011. From 1996 to 2012, declining proportions of patients with RA underwent hip replacement (14.9

作者：Alma B, Pedersen；Anil, Mor；Frank, Mehnert；Reimar W, Thomsen；S?ren P, Johnsen；Mette, N?rgaard

来源：The Journal of rheumatology 2015 年 42卷 12期