Women With Ankylosing Spondylitis Switch Drugs Sooner Than Men

June 14, 2018

Men are more likely to stay the course of TNF inhibitor therapy.

Reference1. Rusman T, Ten Wolde S, Euser SM, et al. Gender differences in retention rate of tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitor treatment in ankylosing spondylitis: a retrospective cohort study in daily practice. Int J Rheum Dis. 2018;21:836-842. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13271.

Rusman and colleagues in the Netherlands looked at gender differences in tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitor (TNFi) treatment in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. They found that women switch TNFi drugs sooner than men and are more prone to infections while receiving TNFi therapy.¹

Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home messages for clinicians.

NSAID, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

The most important reason for discontinuation was inefficacy (in 21 patients; 52.4%). The second reason was the occurrence of adverse effects, of which infections (mostly recurrent) were the most frequent. Female patients had a significantly higher risk of infection than male patients (26% vs 19%).

Women With Ankylosing Spondylitis Switch Drugs Sooner Than Men

Gregory M. Weiss, MD