EVALUATION OF ULTRASOUND REMISSION CRITERIA IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS DURING TOCILIZUMAB THERAPY

Abstract

Objective: to study the association of ultrasound (US) remission criteria with the clinical and laboratory indicators of inflammatory activity, functional status, and X-ray changes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy. Subjects and methods. The trial included 36 patients with RA (meeting the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria) who had received TCZ for 6 months. The authors made a clinical and laboratory assessment of RA activity (DAS28-CRP, and SDAI), functional impairments (HAQ index) and US verification of wrist joint synovitis (a Voluson-i device, GE, 4-13-MHz linear transducer) at baseline and 6 months after therapy. No signs of grey-scale (B-mode) and power Doppler (PD) synovitis (B = 0; PD = 0) or minimal B-mode synovitis, and not more one PD hypervascular signal (В ≤1; PD ≤1) were arbitrarily taken as US remission criteria. Destruction changes were evaluated by hand and foot X-ray using the Sharp method modified by van der Heijde (SHS). Results. After 6 months of therapy, about 80% of the patients in clinical remission retained moderate or significant synovitis, as evidenced by US studies. There were no clinical differences in clinical activity indices and functional impairments between the patients who were and were not in US remission (p > 0.05). The 12-month follow-up SHS score was significantly higher with the preservation of 6-month therapy signs of B-mode synovitis and PD hypervascularization (of not more than one signal) than that in US remission (p 0.05). Conclusion. Subclinical synovitis is observed even in clinical remission of RA. Destruction progression is significantly related to synovitis persistence, as shown by ultrasonography.