ArticleArthritis research & therapy2020
Tapering of biological antirheumatic drugs in rheumatoid arthritis patients is achievable and cost-effective in daily clinical practice: data from the Brussels UCLouvain RA Cohort.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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8 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical and molecular data to predict flares in DMARD optimization in rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2026Trial
- Evaluation of adalimumab tapering regimens in children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis in remission: a simulation study.Pediatric rheumatology online journal · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of a two-year tapered course of tocilizumab in patients with giant cell arteritis: A single-centre prospective study.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2023Article
- An AI-Powered Clinical Decision Support System to Predict Flares in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Pilot Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Impact of b/tsDMARD Dose Reduction on Chronic Hepatitis B in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Two-Center Long-Term Safety Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Discontinuation of biologic DMARDs in non-systemic JIA patients: a scoping review of relapse rates and associated factors.Pediatric rheumatology online journal · 2022Article
- Tapering of biological treatment in autoinflammatory diseases: a scoping review.Pediatric rheumatology online journal · 2022Article
- Dose tapering of biologic agents in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-results from a cohort study in Germany.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Article
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9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
background/purposeStudies have demonstrated that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who achieve low disease activity or remission are able to taper biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the proportion of patients in whom bDMARDs can be tapered in daily practice and to analyse the characteristics of these patients. Other objectives were to analyse which bDMARDs are more suitable for dose reduction and the cost savings.
resultsData from 332 eligible RA patients from our Brussels UCLouvain cohort were retrospectively analysed; 140 patients (42.1%) received a tapered regimen, and 192 received stable doses of bDMARDs. The age at diagnosis (43.1 vs 38.7 years, p = 0.04), health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) score (1.3 vs 1.5, p = 0.048), RF positivity rate (83.3 vs 72.9%, p = 0.04) and disease duration at the time of bDMARD introduction (9.7 vs 12.1 years, p = 0.034) were significantly different between the reduced-dose and stable-dose groups. Interestingly, relatively more patients receiving a tapered dose were treated with a combination of bDMARDs and methotrexate (MTX) (86.7% vs 73.8%, p = 0.005). In our cohort, anti-TNF agents were the most commonly prescribed medications (68%). Only 15 patients experienced a flare during follow-up. Adalimumab, etanercept and rituximab were the most common bDMARDs in the reduced-dose group and were associated with the most important reductions in annual cost.
conclusionIn daily practice, tapering bDMARDs in RA patients who have achieved low disease activity or remission is an achievable goal in a large proportion of patients, thereby reducing potential side effects and annual drug-associated costs. The combination of bDMARDs with MTX could improve the success of dose reduction attempts.
trial registrationThis retrospective non-interventional study was retrospectively registered with local ethics approval.
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