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Strengths and limitations of a systematic review on DMARDs for rheumatoid arthritis

Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology volume 4, pages 296–297 (2008)Cite this article

Systematic reviews are generally important contributions to the literature. Performing a comprehensive evaluation of published clinical trials in a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a particular challenge, given the heterogeneity of the populations enrolled and the approaches to treatment, the many novel therapies studied over the past dozen years, the absence of clinical trials comparing some of the older treatment options, and the possibility of arriving at differing conclusions depending on the interpretative point of view one takes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. JS Smolen is Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology and D Aletaha is Associate Professor of Medicine, in the Division of Rheumatology at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.,

    Josef S Smolen & Daniel Aletaha

Authors
  1. Josef S Smolen
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  2. Daniel Aletaha
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Correspondence to Josef S Smolen.

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Competing interests

JS Smolen has received honoraria and/or grant support from Abbott, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Centocor-Schering-Plough, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, UCB and Wyeth.

D Aletaha received honoraria and/or grant support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Centocor-Schering-Plough, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis and Wyeth.

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Smolen, J., Aletaha, D. Strengths and limitations of a systematic review on DMARDs for rheumatoid arthritis. Nat Rev Rheumatol 4, 296–297 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncprheum0813

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