Session Information
Session Type: ACR Poster Session C
Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM
Background/Purpose: Recently, a significant number of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients can reach low disease activity (LDA) by using biologics such as adalimumab. However biologics therapy can sometimes cause serious side-effects and is expensive. Therefore, it could be expedient to discontinue biologics after achieving sustained remission or LDA. Ultrasonography seems to be a good predictor of relapse in this respect in several studies. The PRIMULA (Prospective study of Remission Induction & Maintenance using ULtrasonograpy in rheumatoid Arthritis) study, is a multicenter prospective study to investigate if ultrasonography (US)-based evaluation could provide an additive value to composite measure-based evaluation for clinical relapse and radiological progression in RA patients who discontinued adalimumab after obtaining sustained LDA.
Methods: Thirty-one RA patients in sustained LDA (DAS28-CRP < 3.2 for more than 6 months) who had been receiving adalimumab plus MTX enrolled in the PRIMULA study were evaluated in this study. All patients underwent US evaluation of synovial hypertrophy (SH) and power Doppler (PD) signal presence. The joints were graded on grayscale (GS; 0-3) and power Doppler (PD; 0-3). Nineteen patients agreed to discontinue adalimumab and 12 continued. Trial visits were performed at week 13, 26, and 52. Modified total Sharp score (mTSS) was also evaluated at the enrollment and the end of study (at week 52). Relapse was defined when DAS28-CRP score elevated more than 3.2. The relationship between the integral value of each disease activity score (ESR, CRP, DAS28, SDAI, and US-SH and -PD score, etc.) and △mTSS (0-52w) was analysed.
Results:
Among the 19 discontinuation group patients, 8 cases relapsed during 1-year study period. There was no significant difference between the relapse group (n=8) and non-relapse group (n=11) in the baseline clinical composite measure (DAS28-CRP 1.3 vs. 1.3; p=0.68) and US score (GS and PD total score 3.4 vs. 3.5; p=0.64) (table 1). Only the integral value (0-52w) of CRP significantly correlated with △mTSS (0-52w) (r=0.617, p=0.006) (table 2).
Conclusion: In this study, US provided limited additional value as a tool to predict patients’ prognosis according to clinical disease activity and radiographic progression, after discontinuation of adalimumab in RA patients who achieved sustained LDA with adalimumab plus MTX.
Table 1. demographic and clinical characteristics at discontinuation
demographic and clinical characteristics |
Discontinuation group |
Wilcoxon rank sum test |
||||||
non-relapse |
relapse |
|||||||
n |
mean |
SD |
n |
mean |
SD |
|||
age (years) |
11 |
56.0 |
18.2 |
8 |
61.4 |
9.8 |
0.408 |
|
disease duration (years) |
11 |
9.4 |
12.9 |
8 |
8.5 |
6.6 |
0.386 |
|
MTX dose (mg/wk) |
11 |
8.2 |
1.1 |
8 |
7.8 |
2.7 |
0.567 |
|
ESR(mm/hr) |
11 |
13.1 |
9.0 |
8 |
13.6 |
6.9 |
0.620 |
|
CRP(mg/dl) |
11 |
0.14 |
0.36 |
8 |
0.05 |
0.07 |
0.655 |
|
DAS28/4 ESR |
11 |
1.7 |
0.6 |
8 |
1.9 |
0.4 |
0.364 |
|
DAS28/4 CRP |
11 |
1.3 |
0.3 |
8 |
1.3 |
0.2 |
0.679 |
|
SDAI |
11 |
1.2 |
0.6 |
8 |
2.1 |
1.3 |
0.230 |
|
CDAI |
11 |
1.1 |
0.7 |
8 |
2.0 |
1.3 |
0.159 |
|
US total |
11 |
3.5 |
3.5 |
8 |
3.4 |
4.7 |
0.643 |
|
US GS |
11 |
2.0 |
1.9 |
8 |
2.0 |
3.0 |
0.583 |
|
US DP |
11 |
1.5 |
1.8 |
8 |
1.4 |
1.7 |
0.863 |
|
MMP-3(ng/ml) |
11 |
85.5 |
106.5 |
8 |
42.0 |
13.1 |
0.591 |
|
RF |
6 |
72.7 |
101.8 |
2 |
84.5 |
21.9 |
0.317 |
|
body weight (kg) |
10 |
50.9 |
7.3 |
8 |
51.9 |
5.3 |
0.755 |
|
Erosion |
6 |
28.1 |
67.3 |
4 |
15.4 |
12.5 |
0.084 |
|
JSN |
6 |
21.5 |
45.9 |
4 |
12.9 |
10.3 |
0.392 |
|
mTSS |
6 |
49.6 |
113.2 |
4 |
28.2 |
22.4 |
0.201 |
Table 2. Correlation between each integral value and △TSS
N |
Pearson’s correlation |
||
R |
Prob. |
||
US total |
17 |
0.392 |
0.120 |
US GS |
17 |
0.272 |
0.290 |
US PD |
17 |
0.385 |
0.127 |
ESR |
18 |
0.204 |
0.417 |
CRP |
18 |
0.617 |
0.006 |
DAS28ESR |
18 |
0.009 |
0.971 |
DAS28CRP |
18 |
0.256 |
0.306 |
SDAI |
18 |
0.274 |
0.272 |
CDAI |
18 |
0.028 |
0.912 |
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Amano K, Aoki K, Kuga Y, Nishimura K, Nagasawa H, Wada TT, Takagi K, Hayashi J, Kaneko M, Sakai R, Shibata A, Chino K, Saito S, Okuyama A, Kondo T, Takei H, Mimura T. Prospective Study of Bio-Free Remission Maintenance Using Ultrasonography in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: 52-Week Result [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017; 69 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/prospective-study-of-bio-free-remission-maintenance-using-ultrasonography-in-rheumatoid-arthritis-patients-52-week-result/. Accessed .« Back to 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting
ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/prospective-study-of-bio-free-remission-maintenance-using-ultrasonography-in-rheumatoid-arthritis-patients-52-week-result/