[Undesirable effects of methothrexate during treatment of rheumatoid arthritis].

Introduction: Methotrexate used as antimetabolite since 40 years in cancerology, is curretly pointed out at weak dose in the treatment of rheumatoid arthitis. However, the intervening of undesirable effects is currently the principal factor limiting its use. The main of our study was evaluate the nature and the frequency of undesirable effects during treatement of rhumatoid arthritis by methotrexate in a prospective study in the department of internal medecine of A.L.D hospital.

Material and methods: Fifty patients were included in the study, they were 43 female and 7 male (sex ratio of 0.161).The mean age were 40.8 years, ranging from 18 to 68. The mean last of MTX treatment was 16.58 months, ranging from 1 to 64.

Results: Twenty seven patients (54%) had at least one undesirable effect. Undesirable effect appeared early in 74.1%. they were 61.5% when MTX was associated with others drugs versus 27.3% when MTX was used alone. Undesirable effects mostly were digestives (38%), general (30%), mucouscutaneous (8%) and hepatics (2%).for patients undesirable effects had involved. They were responsable of definitive stopping treatment in two cases of pulmonary tuberculosis.