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- Title
Long-term effectiveness and safety of TNF-blocking agents in daily clinical practice: results from the Dutch Rheumatoid Arthritis Monitoring register.
- Authors
Kievit, Wietske; Fransen, Jaap; Adang, Eddy M. M.; den Broeder, Alfons A.; Bernelot Moens, Hein J.; Visser, Henk; van de Laar, Mart A. F.; van Riel, Piet L. C. M.
- Abstract
Objectives. Experience with anti-TNF agents for a decade can be used to research the safety and effectiveness of anti-TNF agents in the long term. The objective of this article is to describe drug survival, disease activity, daily functioning, quality of life and adverse events of TNF-blocking agents in daily clinical practice after 5 years of follow-up.Methods. Data from the Dutch Rheumatoid Arthritis Monitoring (DREAM) register of 1560 RA patients were used for analyses (5-year follow-up, n = 174). Drug survival and time to first serious infection or malignancy were analysed by Kaplan–Meier analysis. Several outcome measures at several follow-up moments were analysed per intention to treat and per protocol.Results. The 5-year drug survival of the first anti-TNF was 45%, and 60% for total use of TNF-blocking agents. Baseline 28-joint DAS (DAS-28) was 5.1 (s.d. 1.3). After 5 years, the mean DAS-28 was 3.2 (s.d. 1.3) in all patients who had started with TNF-blocking agents and 2.9 (s.d. 1.1) in patients who were still on TNF-blocking agents. In the latter group, the HAQ score was 0.88 (s.d. 0.7) and the EuroQol five dimensions (EQ-5D) utility score was 0.7 (s.d. 0.2). Incidence rates of serious infections and malignancies were 2.9 and 0.6 per 100 patient-years, respectively.Conclusion. Five-year follow-up of RA patients treated with TNF-blocking agents showed a 60% drug survival accompanied by sustained low disease activity, normalized function and quality of life similar to that in the general population. The benefit to risk ratio for long-term TNF-blocking therapy remains favourable.
- Subjects
NETHERLANDS; DRUG efficacy; TUMOR necrosis factors; MEDICAL practice; RHEUMATOID arthritis; DRUG monitoring; FOLLOW-up studies (Medicine)
- Publication
Rheumatology, 2011, Vol 50, Issue 1, p196
- ISSN
1462-0324
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/rheumatology/keq325