| Van Vliet-Daskalopoulou E et al, 1987, Netherlands | 137 patients with classic or definite RA involving at least one knee joint requiring local treatment. Single intra-articular injection of rimexolone. 34 given placebo, 32 given 10 mg, 33 given 20 mg, 31 given 40 mg. 7 patients did not fulfil protocol requirement | Placebo controlled double blind multicentre clinical trial | Assessment of pain, tenderness, morning stiffness, swelling, range of movement and walking ability at days 7, 28, 56, and 84 after injection | Statistically superior clinical improvement for most variables with rimexolone at 20 mg and 40 ?mg than placebo. With the 10 mg dose of rimexolone only reduction of tenderness was significantly superior. Duration of improvement longest with 40 mg rimexolone. One single intra-articular injection of this dose significantly reduces pain, tenderness and stiffness and improved range of movement and walking ability for 8–12 weeks | There was a significant drop out rate (66% of 10 mg group, 72% of 20 mg, and 71% of 40 mg groups remained for rimexolone groups at the end of the study. Only 44% of placebo treated patients were still under study with the rest not accounted for. |
| | | | | 130 patients distributed over four groups with no sample size calculation |
| | | | | No indication of effort made to standardise clinical variables. As this is a multicentre trial questionable reliability and validity |