Clinical and radiological efficacy of initial vs delayed treatment with infliximab plus methotrexate in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Issue 7 (17th October 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van der Kooij, S M; le Cessie, S; Goekoop-Ruiterman, Y P M; de Vries-Bouwstra, J K; van Zeben, D; Kerstens, P J S M; Hazes, J M W; van Schaardenburg, D; Breedveld, F C; Dijkmans, B A C; Allaart, C F
• Is Part Of: Annals of the rheumatic diseases. Volume 68:Issue 7(2009)
• Page Start: 1153
• Page End: 1158
• Publication Date: 2008-10-17
• Subjects: Rheumatism -- Periodicals; 616.723005
• DOI: 10.1136/ard.2008.093294
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-4967

Abstract

Abstract : Objectives: To compare the clinical and radiological efficacy of initial vs delayed treatment with methotrexate (MTX) and infliximab (IFX) in patients with recent onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: In a post hoc analysis of the BeSt study (for Behandel Stratagieen, Dutch for treatment strategies), 117 patients who started initial MTX+IFX were compared with 67 patients who started MTX+IFX treatment after failing (disease activity score (DAS)>2.4; median delay to IFX: 13 months) on ⩾3 traditional DMARDs. If the DAS remained >2.4, the protocol dictated IFX dose increases to 6, 7.5 and 10 mg/kg. In case of a DAS ⩽2.4 for ⩾6 months, IFX was tapered and finally stopped. We aimed to correct for allocation bias using propensity scores. Functional ability was measured by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), radiological progression by Sharp/van der Heijde scoring (SHS). Results: Baseline differences between the initial and delayed groups were no longer significant after propensity score adjustment. At 3 years after baseline, patients treated with initial MTX+IFX experienced more improvement in HAQ over time and were less likely to have SHS progression than patients treated with delayed MTX+IFX (p = 0.034). At 2 years after IFX initiation, more patients in the initial group compared with the delayed group could discontinue IFX after a good response (56% vs 29%, p = 0.008). Conclusions: The results of this post hoc analysis suggest that using MTX+IFX as initial treatment for patients with recent onset RA is more effective than reserving MTX+IFX for patients who failed on traditional DMARDs, with more HAQ improvement over time, more IFX discontinuation and less progression of joint damage.