Rheumatoid arthritisThe Risk of Infections with Biologic Therapies for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Section snippets
Methods
As a primary decision, only published data were considered for this review. Additionally, the decision was made to maintain the article as a review rather than a meta-analysis to permit a wider range of articles and abstracts of varying quality to be included. Potential limitations of this approach are acknowledged, where appropriate.
The primary information for this article was gathered from a search of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane (Clinical Trials Register and Systematic Reviews) databases
Discussion
This review of the literature on infections in patients receiving biological agents shows that our knowledge of this area is based on a mixture of results from randomized controlled trials, observational studies, and case reports of unequal quality. Furthermore, the literature is difficult to synthesize as a result of the heterogeneity of the populations and the widely different metrics used to present the data. Despite these substantial limitations, it is possible to draw certain conclusions
Acknowledgment
Support for third-party writing assistance for this manuscript, furnished by Neil Anderson, was provided by Genentech, Inc. and Biogen Idec.
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