Early changes in fatigue and cytokine concentration following etanercept treatment in rheumatoid arthritis. (April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mercieca, Cecilia; Zakout, Samy; Kirwan, John; Sharif, Mohammed; Smith, Elaine
• Is Part Of: International journal of clinical rheumatology. Volume 10:Number 2(2015)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2015-04
• Subjects: biologic therapies -- cytokines -- fatigue -- IL-6 -- rheumatoid arthritis; Rheumatology -- Periodicals; 616.723005
• DOI: 10.2217/ijr.15.4
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-4272

Abstract

Aim: To study early changes in fatigue, disease activity and cytokines within individual patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) following etanercept treatment.Methods: 12-week prospective observational study of 21 RA patients starting etanercept therapy. DAS28, fatigue, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1ra were measured.Results: DAS28, fatigue and IL-6 improved significantly by 40% compared with baseline values in the first 4 weeks (P < 0.05), but followed different time courses. The main improvement in IL-6 occurred by week 2, fatigue (BRAF MDQ) by week 3 and DAS28 by week 4. At week 3 improvement of DAS28 (24%) was significantly less than BRAF MDQ (42%, P < 0.003) and IL-6 (43%, P < 0.03).Conclusion: Fatigue improved faster than disease activity, suggesting that fatigue may be mediated via a different pathway.