#05-25 Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Centre 
6684 4484 
Long-term Low-dose Steroids OK in Early RA
Use with DMARDs and for the shortest period and the lowest possible dose
medpagetoday.com
"Long-term" in this study was up to 5 years, with a mean of 3 years.
"Low-dose" was up to 5 mg, averaging 3 mg.
Short term use of oral corticosteroids and related harms among adults in the United States: population based cohort study
bmj.com
Less than 1% of the subjects were prescribed what is conventionally considered as "low dose" of less than 7.5 mg of Prednisolone daily, so the risks may not be applicable to this group. Over 90% were prescribed more than 17.5 mg daily. "Short term" spanned 4-7 days.
At such moderate-to-high doses, significant side-effects were observed within 30 days of prescription: 5 times the risk for infection, 3 times the risk for venous thromboembolism, and twice the risk for fracture.
Low-dose prednisone chronotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis: a randomised clinical trial (CAPRA-2)
Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of low-dose prednisone chronotherapy using a new modified-release (MR) formulation for the treatment of rheumatoid…
ard.bmj.com
Intra-articular glucocorticoid injections should not be neglected in the remission targeted treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis: a post hoc analysis from the NEO-RACo trial
clinexprheumatol.org
Glucocorticoids and endothelial function in inflammatory diseases: focus on rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common systemic autoimmune disease characterized by articular and extra-articular manifestations involving…
arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com
