@article{article_392005, title={Rituximab Efficacy and Safety in Patients with Rheumatoid arthritis That are Refractory or Intolerable to Anti Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Agents}, journal={Journal of Uludağ University Medical Faculty}, volume={37}, pages={127–130}, year={2011}, author={Dalkılıç, Ediz and Alkış, Nihan and Özkaya, Güven and Yavuz, Mahmut and Güllülü, Mustafa and Dilek, Kamil and Ersoy, Alpaslan and Bayındır, Ayşe Nur and Yurtkuran, Mustafa and Çefle, Ayşe}, keywords={Rituksimab, Romatoid artrit, Anti tümör nekroz faktör alfa}, abstract={In this study, we evaluated the efficiency and safety of rituximab (RIT) treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA) who were ina-dequate responders to anti tumor necrosis alpha (antiTNFα) agents or patients that can not tolerate antiTNFα agents because of adverse events. Twenty two patients with RA were enrolled to the study. Disease activity score(DAS 28) before and after (3. month) the RIT treat-ment, acute phase reactants, number of antiTNFα agents before RIT therapy and adverse events were analysed. Rheumatoid factor was positive in 18 of the 22 patients. Seventeen of the 22 patients were inadequate responders to antiTNFα agents, 2 patients developed malig-nancy and in 3 patients antiTNFα agents could not be used due to other adverse events. In cross sectional analysis of the 3. month, a signifi-cant decrease was seen in DAS28 from 5,9 to 4,8 (n=15, p}, number={3}, publisher={Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi}