Autoantibody status is not associated with early remission
and good physical function, so RA treatment should not be always tailored to
autoantibody status in patients receiving MTX.
A recent study published in Journal Rheumatology recommended the use of methotrexate (MTX) as an initial treatment strategy despite autoantibody status. Before this analysis, the connection of autoantibody status with treatment response to MTX was unpredictable. This study used real-world data to assess this relationship.
An international observational database, METEOR was used to choose patients who initially administered with MTX. A total of 1826 patients were classified into autoantibody negative and autoantibody-positive groups. Further, Cox-proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the impact of autoantibody status on the probability of obtaining remission within 3 to 6 months.
A total of 318
patients obtained the DAS remission; 18% from the negative group and 17% from
the positive group. This reflected no association of remission with
autoantibody positivity. Also, no association was seen between
autoantibody-positivity and HAQ < 0.5. Comparable verdicts were observed
when stratified for MTX monotherapy or combination therapy. Further, 530 out of
1590 patients attained good physical function.
All these findings showed no link between early remission in newly
diagnosed RA-patients receiving MTX and autoantibody status, which indicates
MTX as an efficacious treatment approach for rheumatoid arthritis treatment.
Rheumatology
Autoantibody status is not associated with early treatment response to first-line Methotrexate in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis.
Jacqueline S Dekkers et al.
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