Table 2

Treatment terminations for ineffectiveness in original and re-employed methotrexate therapies



Re-employed course
Total






No inefficacy
Inefficacy


Original course
No inefficacy
19 (9.7 ± 3.1/11.4 ± 4.9)
9 (10.0 ± 4.0/15.8 ± 6.5)
28 (9.8 ± 3.3/12.9 ± 5.8)

Inefficacy
23 (11.8 ± 4.5/16.8 ± 5.6)
28 (14.5 ± 5.3/18.8 ± 5.2)
51 (13.3 ± 5.1/17.9 ± 5.4)
Total
42 (10.9 ± 4.1/14.4 ± 5.9)
37 (13.5 ± 5.3/18.1 ± 5.6)
79 (12.1 ± 4.8/16.1 ± 6.0)

The numbers in parentheses are the doses in the original methotrexate/re-employed methotrexate courses (mean ± standard deviation) in mg/week). The percentage of patients who were concordant for the presence or absence of inefficacy was 60.3% (P = 0.022, by McNemar test).

Kapral et al. Arthritis Research & Therapy 2006 8:R46   doi:10.1186/ar1902