US Practice Patterns and Impact of Monitoring for Mucosal Inflammation After Biologic Initiation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Abstract

We assessed practice patterns for monitoring mucosal inflammation after biologic initiation and the association between monitoring approaches and development of disease-related complications for Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). This study used a Truven Health MarketScan (2007-2016) query for CD and UC patients initiating biologic therapy. Cumulative 24-month disease-related complications (corticosteroids, change of biologic, hospitalization, surgery) in patients undergoing proactive disease monitoring with lower endoscopy, fecal calprotectin, or cross-sectional radiographic enterography (computed tomography enterography or magnetic resonance enterography) within 6 months of biologic initiation vs no early monitoring after biologic initiation were compared. Cox proportional hazard ratios (HRs with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) adjusted for propensity score were used. Within the first 24 months after biologic initiation, monitoring (proactive or reactive) was performed in 56.4% of CD patients and 67.8% of UC patients, with considerable geographic variability. Early (within 6 months) proactive monitoring was endoscopy-based (87.9%), performed in 11% of CD (n = 2195/19,899) and 12.8% of UC (n = 925/7247) patients. Compared with no early monitoring, early proactive monitoring was associated with a reduction in disease-related complications for CD (adjusted HR [aHR], 0.90; 95% CI, 0.84-0.96) and UC (aHR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.78-0.97) and predominately driven by a reduction in corticosteroid use (CD: aHR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.77-0.90; UC: aHR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.69-0.87). Results were consistent across multiple sensitivity analyses. Early proactive monitoring of mucosal inflammation in CD and UC within 6 months of biologic initiation was associated with reduction in disease-related complications over 24 months, primarily related to reduced steroid utilization. Wide variation exists in practice patterns for monitoring of mucosal inflammation after biologic initiation.