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Anti-TNF therapy slows knee joint rheumatoid arthritis progression
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Patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed improvement after anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy, but residual local symptoms suggested there is a higher incidence of joint destruction progression.
“We should treat rheumatoid arthritis patients with consideration for the possibility of joint destruction in the knee joints having residual local symptoms progress,” the authors wrote in their abstract.
Japanese investigators retrospectively studied 32 patients with rheumatoid arthritis who received anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy. They examined the correlation between local symptoms and knee joint destruction through 94 weeks post-therapy using the changes of disease activity score in 28 joints based on C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP score). They also evaluated knee joint destruction using the Larsen grading scale. Furthermore, the investigators explored the differences in DAS28-CRP score and swollen or tender knee joints between patients with destruction of joint tissue (progression group) and patients without destruction of tissue (non-progression group).
The DAS28-CRP score improved in both groups based on time, but the researchers noted it was no different for the progression and non-progression groups between 0 weeks and 94 weeks follow-up.
However, the rate of swollen or tender knee joints was higher in the progression group at 22 weeks to 94 weeks after anti-TNF therapy.
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