Methotrexate therapy is not associated with increased liver stiffness and significant liver fibrosis in rheumatoid arthritis patients: A cross-sectional controlled study with real-time two-dimensional shear wave elastography

To explore the significance of the association between treatment with methotrexate (MTX) and liver stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. We enrolled 140 consecutive RA patients under MTX treatment (MTX-treated RA; mean treatment duration: 6.2 years; mean MTX cumulative dose: 4.67 g), 33 R...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of internal medicine 2019-11, Vol.69, p.57-63
Main Authors: Erre, Gian Luca, Cadoni, Maria Luisa, Meloni, Pierluigi, Castagna, Floriana, Mangoni, Arduino Aleksander, Piga, Matteo, Passiu, Giuseppe, Carru, Ciriaco, Zinellu, Angelo, Vidili, Gianpaolo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Liver fibrosis
Liver stiffness
Methotrexate
Rheumatoid arthritis
Shear wave elastography
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Summary:To explore the significance of the association between treatment with methotrexate (MTX) and liver stiffness in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. We enrolled 140 consecutive RA patients under MTX treatment (MTX-treated RA; mean treatment duration: 6.2 years; mean MTX cumulative dose: 4.67 g), 33 RA patients naive to MTX (MTX-naive RA) and 100 age and sex-matched healthy blood donors (HD). Liver stiffness was assessed by real time two-dimensional shear wave elastography, with values ≥7.1 Kilopascals (kPa) defining significant liver fibrosis. kPa values in HD (4.32 ± 0.7) were lower than that in MTX-naive RA (4.92 ± 0.8) and MTX-treated RA (4.85 ± 0.9, p 
ISSN:0953-6205
1879-0828
DOI:10.1016/j.ejim.2019.08.022