[Improvement of prognosis by timely treatment : Requirement: initial presentation within 6 weeks].

[Improvement of prognosis by timely treatment : Requirement: initial presentation within 6 weeks]. Z Rheumatol. 2019 Mar 01;: Authors: Lorenz HM, Wendler J, Krause A Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most frequent chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases and when untreated leads to chronic tissue destruction and increased mortality. Due to innovative systemic treatment strategies established over the last 20-25 years, the prognosis has considerably improved in terms of disease and socioeconomic burdens, symptoms, long-term prognosis, ability to work and mortality; however, as a rule a prerequisite is long-term and continuous treatment. A medicinal cure of RA is still not in view. For many patients this means the long-term use of very expensive medications. In addition to hemato-oncology, rheumatology has become the second most expensive discipline in Germany in terms of cost per patient. Convincing data from many studies imply that an early start of treatment within the first few weeks after clinical onset of symptoms improves the prognosis, reduces the necessity for expensive drugs and thereby considerably decreases medical costs. This results in the requirement that every patient with symptoms of arthritis must be seen by a rheumatologist within the first 6 weeks following initial manifestation of the disease. Such an improvement in treatment can only be achieved in Germany if the numbers of rheumatologists and tra...
Source: Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie - Category: Rheumatology Authors: Tags: Z Rheumatol Source Type: research