Pocock JM et al. – A substantial proportion of patients on anti-TNF-α therapy who fail National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) response criteria at 3 months and continue on treatment to 6 months achieved a response. These results support a 6 month therapeutic trial over 3 months. Methods
Study to evaluate the proportion of pts who failed to meet NICE response criteria at 3 mos but obtained this by 6 mos, and to identify predictive factors for this
Pts who commenced anti-TNF-α therapy for RA were studied
Pts who switched to a second or third agent separately for each instigation of therapy were counted (n=244)
Response at 3 and 6 mos was defined according to NICE criteria as a ≥1.2 reduction in DAS28
Results
149/189 pts fulfilled response criteria with available 3 month DAS28 responses
Of the 40 who failed, 27 continued treatment, of whom 21 were available for f/u at 6 mos
57% of pts achieved a response at this time
This data set was too small to investigate predictors of response at 6 mos
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