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Quality of life and disease activity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis on tofacitinib and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapies

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the therapeutic results of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy with different biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) and the first Janus-activated kinase (JAK) inhibitor in real-life clinical settings. This is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study at the largest rheumatology clinic in Bulgaria conducted during the period 2012–2020. One hundred seventy-four patients were followed up for a period of one year. Patients naïve to biological therapy were consecutively assigned on the available at the time bDMARDs (infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab, rituximab, golimumab, cetrolizumab, tocilizumab) or tofacitinib. We evaluated the disease activity score (DAS28-CRP), Health assessment questionnaires (HAQ) and short form 36 (SF-36) were applied at the initiation of biological therapy, after 6, and 12 months of follow-up. We analyze the changes in the two major subgroups of SF36—physical (MCS) and mental health (PCS). The age and gender distribution were similar between the groups on bDMARDs and tsDMARD. All observed indicators for disease control and QoL improve after the initiation of the biological or JAK inhibitor therapy. We also analyze the effect of therapies on DAS28—CRP, HAQ, SF-36 (PCS, MCS). Dispersion analysis for the effect of therapy measured through DAS28 between 1st and 3rd measurement shows a statically significant difference in between the average effect of therapies (p = 0.005). According to the average change in DAS28 between the first and third measurement the most effective is the golimumab (Median difference = 2.745), followed by rituximab (median = 2.305) and etanercept (median = 2.070). According to the average change in HAQ between first and third the most effective is tofacitinib (median 0.563), followed rituximab and infliximab (median 0.500 for both). Less effective in term of HAQ changes between the first and third measurement appears to be etanercept (median difference 0.250). All differences are statistically significant (p < 0.05). Regarding the changes in the QoL measured with SF-36 MCS and PCS there is no statistically significant differences in the average effect of different therapeutic agents. Tofacitinib is non-inferior in comparison to bDMARDs and improve both—disease activity and QoL in patients with RA.

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The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital “St. Ivan Rilski”, Medical University of Sofia, 13 Urvich str, 1612, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Vladimira Boyadzhieva, Nikolay Stoilov & Rumen Stoilov

  2. Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Konstantin Tachkov, Konstantin Mitov & Guenka Petrova

Authors
  1. Vladimira Boyadzhieva
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  2. Konstantin Tachkov
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  3. Nikolay Stoilov
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  4. Konstantin Mitov
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  5. Rumen Stoilov
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  6. Guenka Petrova
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Contributions

Conceptualization, VB and GP; methodology, VB, KT, NS, and KM; software, KT and KM; validation, VB and NS; formal analysis, GP and VB; investigation, VB and NS; resources, VB and NS; data curation, KT and KM; statistical analysis: KT; writing—original draft preparation VB and GP; writing—review and editing, VB, NS, KT, GP; visualization, KT and KM; supervision, GP, RS; project administration, VB and NS All authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Vladimira Boyadzhieva.

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Boyadzhieva, V., Tachkov, K., Stoilov, N. et al. Quality of life and disease activity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis on tofacitinib and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapies. Rheumatol Int 42, 1775–1783 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-022-05163-8

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