Efficacy and tolerance of psoriatic arthritis basic therapy using leflunomide

Iaremenko O.B. ¹, Fedkov D.L. ²

• ¹ДУ «Національний науковий центр «Інститут кардіології ім. М.Д. Стражеска» НАМН України», Київ
• ²O.O. Bohomolets National Medical University, Kyiv

Summary. Summary. The article studies the efficiency and tolerability to both mono- and combined basis therapy (CBT) leflunomide (LF) treatment in 63 cases of psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The LF administration in the dose of 20 mg per day acts as an expressed anaesthetic and antiinflammatory effect in 4 weeks already with a further increase of its clinic-laboratorial action to the 12th week of treatment. In 12th weeks under the action of LF joint disease overall indices (DAS(CRP) and DAS(ESR)) decreased by 45%, the functional state of the patients improved by 26.3% (according to the HAQ index), the psoriasis area and severity index decreased 1.9 times (according to the PASI 50). The efficiency of LF combined with sulfasalazine or methotrexate was higher in comparison with the LF monotherapy in both joint disease (higher frequency of good and satisfactory results of DAS(CRP)) and skin disease (higher number of patients responsive to the PASI 50) cases. The treatment tolerability was good in 73% of cases, satisfactory in 22.2% of cases. 4.8% of patients refused completion of the therapy because of adverse events. There were no striking differences between the tolerability of the monotherapy and CBT LF treatment.