Abatacept
could be used to prevent bone destruction and may even allow repair of erosion as
it significantly reduced synovitis and osteitis and prevented further decline
of erosion and cartilage damage after 12 months of treatment.
A study recently revealed that abatacept treatment reduced
synovitis and osteitis scores and did not worsen erosion and JSN scores at
Month 12. Over 10% of patients experienced repair of erosion. Throughout the
past few decades, various pharmacotherapies options like NSAIDs,
corticosteroids, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) listed in RA
management. One such drug which is proven very effective in RA treatment is
Abatacept.
This study summarizes the evaluation of abatacept efficacy among 35 RA patients
through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of bilateral hands. The MRI evaluation
was done at baseline and after 12months of abatacept treatment. The MRI images
which were taken into account for evaluation were erosion, synovitis, joint
space narrowing (JSN) and osteitis. The RA MRI Scoring System (RAMRIS) was used
to rank these images. The change in RAMRIS score was considered as the primary
endpoint. The repair of erosion also
noticed after the treatment. This was the negative change in the erosion scores
which were noticed higher than the smallest detectable changes (SDCs).
Out of 35 patients, 31 finished the treatment therapy. The osteitis and
synovitis scores exhibited a great statistical decrease at 12th month. On the
other hand, no changes were seen in JSN
and median erosion scores. Only 11% of participants exhibited repair of erosion
& obtained a functional remission. However, 83% of participants reflected
no change in erosion scores. The study evaluated the Simplified Disease
Activity Index response rate in the first month of treatment as an independent
factor which predicted changes in the erosion scores after 12-month treatment.
Int J Rheum Dis. 2017 Jul 21.
Efficacy of abatacept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging of bilateral hands.
Kukida Y et al.
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