PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ruben Tavares
AU  - Janet E. Pope
AU  - Jean-Luc Tremblay
AU  - Carter Thorne
AU  - Vivian P. Bykerk
AU  - Juris Lazovskis
AU  - Kenneth L.N. Blocka
AU  - Mary J. Bell
AU  - Diane Lacaille
AU  - Carol A. Hitchon
AU  - Avril A. Fitzgerald
AU  - Wesley K. Fidler
AU  - Arthur A.M. Bookman
AU  - James M. Henderson
AU  - Dianne P. Mosher
AU  - Dalton E. Sholter
AU  - Majed Khraishi
AU  - Boulos Haraoui
AU  - Hong Chen
AU  - Xiuying Li
AU  - Andreas Laupacis
AU  - Gilles Boire
AU  - George Tomlinson
AU  - Claire Bombardier
TI  - Early Management of Newly Diagnosed Rheumatoid Arthritis by Canadian Rheumatologists: A National, Multicenter, Retrospective Cohort
AID  - 10.3899/jrheum.110249
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - The Journal of Rheumatology
PG  - jrheum.110249
4099  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2011/08/30/jrheum.110249.short
4100  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2011/08/30/jrheum.110249.full
AB  - Objective To describe early rheumatologic management for newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Canada. Methods A retrospective cohort of 339 randomly selected patients with RA diagnosed from 2001-2003 from 18 rheumatology practices was audited between 2005-2007. Results The most frequent initial disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) included hydroxychloroquine (55.5%) and methotrexate (40.1%). Initial therapy with multiple DMARD (15.6%) or single DMARD and corticosteroid combinations (30.7%) was infrequent. Formal assessment measures were noted infrequently, including the Health Assessment Questionnaire (34.6%) and Disease Activity Score for 28 joints (8.9%). Conclusion Initial pharmacotherapy is consistent with guidelines from the period. The infrequent reporting of multiple DMARD combinations and formal assessment measures has implications for current clinical management and warrants contemporary reassessment.