Which Patients With Psoriatic Arthritis Respond to Biologic Therapy?

Jul 11, 2018

Two characteristics predict a worse response to biologics.

Reference1. Mease PJ, Karki C, Liu M, et al. Baseline patient characteristics associated with response to biologic therapy in patients with psoriatic arthritis enrolled in the Corrona Psoriatic Arthritis/Spondyloarthritis Registry. RMD Open. 2018;4:e000638. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2017-000638.

Mease and colleagues at multiple centers across the United States found that patients with psoriatic arthritis who had higher tender joint counts and worse patient-reported outcomes were more likely not to achieve minimal disease activity on a biologic drug.¹

Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home points for physicians.

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EULAR, European League Against Rheumatism.

Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using CRP (DAS28-CRP), and Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score using CRP (ASDAS-CRP) were utilized.

Despite the differences in tender joint counts, there was no between-group difference for Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), which incorporates tender/swollen joint counts and patient/physician global disease activity (mean, 14.0 vs 12.8 for MDA-NA and MDA-A, respectively).

BASDAI, Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index; BASFI, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index; HAQ, Health Assessment Questionnaire; MDA-A, minimal disease activity achievers; MDA-NA, minimal disease activity non-achievers.

Although MDA-NA had a higher percentage of work time missed compared with MDA-A (6.1% vs 1.4%), this was not statistically significant.