Real Life Serious Infections in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis on Treatment with TNF Inhibitors

Alazne Ruiz ¹, Juan Ramón De Dios ², Belen Alvarez ¹, Margarida Vasques Rocha ², Claudia Stoye ², Susana Gil ¹, Orlando Pompei Fernández ² and Jaime Calvo-Alen³, ¹Hospital Universitario Araba, Vitoria, Pais Vasco, Spain, ²Araba University Hospital, Vitoria, Pais Vasco, Spain, ³Hospital Universitario Araba, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Meeting: 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting

Keywords: anti-TNF therapy, infection and arthritis

Session Information

Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Session Title: Infection-Related Rheumatic Disease Poster

Session Type: Poster Session (Tuesday)

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose: To study frequency and associated factors for serious infections in patients with inflammatory arthritis treated with TNF inhibitors

Methods: All the medical records of the patients with inflammatory arthritis being treated with TNF inhibitors at the beginning of 2016 were reviewed. All seroious infections suffered for these patients until the end of 2018 were recorded. Serious infections were defined as those which required to admitted at the hospital for intraveous treatment. Potential variables associated with the development of these infections including: demographic and clinical characteristics, concomitant treatments or comorbidity (by Charlson index) were studied. Standard statistical tests for descriptive and univariate analyses were used and a multivariable logistic regression model was built to check independent associations.

Results: Overall 334 patients (50.3% women) with a mean age of 56.67 (±12.853) were studied: 140 (41.92%) Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 55 (16.46%) psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and 138 (41.62%) spondyloarthritis (Sp). Forty five serious infections were observed in 30 patients, being respiratory (40%) and urinary (8.8%) the most frequent localizations. Only one patient died. By univariate analysis, disease duration, age, concomitan use of glucocorticoids (GC) (but not of synthetic DMARDs), Charlson index and specifically Diabetes Mellitus were associated with infection (p< 0.05). The type of arthritis was not associated and the results in the subset of RA patients were overall similar. In the multivariate analysis the use of GC [OR: 5.31 (1.98.14.26)] and the Charlson index [OR:2.48 (1.70;3.60)] were found to be independently associated to infection.

Conclusion: In patients with inflammatory arthritis and treated with TNF inhibitors around a 10% developed any serious infection along three years of follow up. Use of GC and comorbidity emerged as the main risk factors for this complication.

Disclosure: A. Ruiz, None; J. De Dios, None; B. Alvarez, None; M. Vasques Rocha, None; C. Stoye, None; S. Gil, None; O. Pompei Fernández, None; J. Calvo-Alen, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Ruiz A, De Dios J, Alvarez B, Vasques Rocha M, Stoye C, Gil S, Pompei Fernández O, Calvo-Alen J. Real Life Serious Infections in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis on Treatment with TNF Inhibitors [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019; 71 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/real-life-serious-infections-in-patients-with-chronic-inflammatory-arthritis-on-treatment-with-tnf-inhibitors/. Accessed July 1, 2022.

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