• Josef S Smolen, Robert Landewé, Johannes Bijlsma, Gerd Burmester, Katerina Chatzidionysiou, Maxime Dougados, Jackie Nam, Sofia Ramiro, Marieke Voshaar, Ronald van Vollenhoven, Daniel Aletaha, Martin Aringer, Maarten Boers, Chris D Buckley, Frank Buttgereit, Vivian Bykerk, Mario Cardiel, Bernard Combe, Maurizio Cutolo, Yvonne van Eijk-Hustings, Paul Emery, Axel Finckh, Cem Gabay, Juan Gomez-Reino, Laure Gossec, Jacques-Eric Gottenberg, HazesJohanna M WJMWErasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands., Tom Huizinga, Meghna Jani, Dmitry Karateev, Marios Kouloumas, Tore Kvien, Zhanguo Li, Xavier Mariette, Iain McInnes, Eduardo Mysler, Peter Nash, Karel Pavelka, Gyula Poór, Christophe Richez, Piet van Riel, Andrea Rubbert-Roth, Kenneth Saag, Jose da Silva, Tanja Stamm, Tsutomu Takeuchi, René Westhovens, Maarten de Wit, and Désirée van der Heijde.
• Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine 3, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
• Ann. Rheum. Dis. 2017 Jun 1; 76 (6): 960-977.

AbstractRecent insights in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) necessitated updating the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) RA management recommendations. A large international Task Force based decisions on evidence from 3 systematic literature reviews, developing 4 overarching principles and 12 recommendations (vs 3 and 14, respectively, in 2013). The recommendations address conventional synthetic (cs) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) (methotrexate (MTX), leflunomide, sulfasalazine); glucocorticoids (GC); biological (b) DMARDs (tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-inhibitors (adalimumab, certolizumab pegol, etanercept, golimumab, infliximab), abatacept, rituximab, tocilizumab, clazakizumab, sarilumab and sirukumab and biosimilar (bs) DMARDs) and targeted synthetic (ts) DMARDs (Janus kinase (Jak) inhibitors tofacitinib, baricitinib). Monotherapy, combination therapy, treatment strategies (treat-to-target) and the targets of sustained clinical remission (as defined by the American College of Rheumatology-(ACR)-EULAR Boolean or index criteria) or low disease activity are discussed. Cost aspects were taken into consideration. As first strategy, the Task Force recommends MTX (rapid escalation to 25 mg/week) plus short-term GC, aiming at >50% improvement within 3 and target attainment within 6 months. If this fails stratification is recommended. Without unfavourable prognostic markers, switching to-or adding-another csDMARDs (plus short-term GC) is suggested. In the presence of unfavourable prognostic markers (autoantibodies, high disease activity, early erosions, failure of 2 csDMARDs), any bDMARD (current practice) or Jak-inhibitor should be added to the csDMARD. If this fails, any other bDMARD or tsDMARD is recommended. If a patient is in sustained remission, bDMARDs can be tapered. For each recommendation, levels of evidence and Task Force agreement are provided, both mostly very high. These recommendations intend informing rheumatologists, patients, national rheumatology societies, hospital officials, social security agencies and regulators about EULAR's most recent consensus on the management of RA, aimed at attaining best outcomes with current therapies.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

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