Effect of a Three-Month Course of Cipro on the Late Prognosis of Reactive Arthritis
8/25/2003
The value of antibiotics in the treatment of reactive arthritis (ReA) is still controversial, claims the authors of a recent study. T Yli-Kerttula and colleagues from Finland analyzed the long-term outcome of patients with ReA who received treatment with a three-month course of the antibiotic ciproflaxin (Cipro) or placebo.
Patients who had ReA and had participated in the double blind, placebo controlled trial on the effectiveness of ciprofloxacin four to seven years earlier were invited to a clinical examination.
- 53 of the original 71 participants agreed to visit the clinic for an examination.
- 26 of 53 had originally received ciprofloxacin
- 27 of 52 had originally received a placebo
- 20 in the ciprofloxacin and 25 in the placebo group were HLA-B27 positive
Findings
- 11 of 27 (41%) patients in the original placebo group had now developed chronic rheumatic disease (ReA)
- 2 of 26 (8%) patients originally treated with ciprofloxacin had now developed chronic ReA
- 2 patients who had originally received placebo and none in the ciprofloxacin group had developed ankylosing spondylitis
- 3 in the original placebo group and none in the ciprofloxacin group had recurrent uveitis, which is a potentially serious inflammation of the eye
- Of the patients with chronic spondyloarthropathy, 10 in the placebo and none in the ciprofloxacin group were HLA-B27 positive
Analysis four to seven years after the initial ReA suggests that a three-month course of antibiotics in the acute phase may have a beneficial effect on the long-term prognosis, concludes the researchers.
-- Effect of a three-month course of ciprofloxacin on the late prognosis of reactive arthritis. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2003; 62: 880-884.