A Meta-Analysis Of Efficacy And Safety Of Infliximab And Methotrexate In Treatment Of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety between Infliximab and Methotrexate intreatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs)about the effect of Infliximab on patients with RA from January1990to August2011were searched for according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Nine studies were chosenat last for Meta-analysis. The data were analyzed by REVMAN5.0software. Results:There were9researches included in this article.898cases were treated with Infliximaband769cases were treated with Methotrexate. The results of meta-analysis showed thatcompared with the control group Infliximab is superior to Methotrexate in efficacy. After24weeks, the efficacy reaches ACR20: RR=2.16,95%CI [1.76,2.65], Z=7.35,(P＜0.00001); ACR50: RR=2.36,95%CI [1.91,2.91], Z=7.99,(P＜0.00001); ACR70:RR=2.20,95%CI [1.69,2.87], Z=5.81,(P＜0.00001). There is no significant statisticaldifference between Infliximab and Methotrexate in the aspect of side effects,(P＞0.05),RR=0.93,95%CI [0.69,1.27]. Conclusion: Meta-analysis manifests that Infliximab hassignificant curative efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. There was no significantdifference between the Infliximab group and the Methotrexate group in the side effects.Because of the quality and bias limitations of the included studies, more double blindRCTs with high quality studies are required to further assess the effects.