The placebo remission rates are influenced by the trial length, number of study visits, use of stricter remission definitions, and design features that enroll patients with more active disease.
Use of sustained remission as a primary outcome measure similarly presents a challenge to following induction treatment with CYC and glucocorticoids, as 80 83% of patients remain in remission at 18 months [ 6, 7].
The results obtained moreover lent further support to the findings of Van Os et al. [ 7], who reported how the use of standardized remission criteria in schizophrenia "had the potential to improve documentation of clinical status in medical records, by providing an objective measure of illness course and treatment effect that is applicable to routine clinical care".
Persistently raised CRP has been suggested to correlate better with inflammation in PMR than ESR and may thus be better suited for use in definitions of remission and relapse.
Although clear evidence for its use during induction of remission - apart from PCP-prophylaxis - is missing, T/S has proven its ability to reduce bacterial infections in patients with WG [ 28] and, therefore, might be considered in high-risk patients.
Boolean remission was similar between groups, suggesting that the use of more stringent remission criteria blurs the differences between drug classes.
Therefore, most recent trials currently use a DAS-based definition of remission or use the ACR70 response criteria.
Finally, we also used the definition of remission as specified by each individual study.
In non-life or organ-threatening CSS, for example, MTX might be used for induction of remission but subsequent relapse rates are high [ 61].
In addition, using standard definitions of remission employed in clinical trials for other vasculitides, a total of 7 of 11 patients fulfilled remission criteria at their latest follow-up examination.
