Low Disease Activity

Remission and low disease activity can discriminate between patients taking active drug vs. placebo in clinical trials and are linked to health-related quality of life, according to data in Arthritis Care & Research.

In patients with residual axial spondyloarthritis disease activity, many physicians avoid strict adherence to treat-to-target guidelines in favor of low disease activity, based on their own opinion, as a treatment goal, according to data.

DESTIN, Fla. — Low disease activity and remission are achievable for patients with lupus if clinicians “minimize the prednisone” and administer adequate hydroxychloroquine, noted a speaker at the 2023 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

Remission should be the primary goal for patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus, according to new points to consider for treat-to-target endorsed by the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society.

As many as 96% of patients with axial spondyloarthritis who withdrew from ixekizumab after a favorable response were able to recapture low disease activity, while 71% retained inactive disease, after resuming the drug, according to data.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who achieve remission, regardless of treatment status, or low disease activity are less likely to accrue as much systematic damage as those who do not reach treatment goals, according to data.

The 2022 EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis are largely similar to the 2019 updates, with one point of emphasis being the importance of rapid glucocorticoid reduction and discontinuation.

This month, we are so lucky to have such an extraordinary panel of experts in the field of rheumatoid arthritis — Daniel Aletaha, MD, MSc; Stanley Cohen, MD; Bryant R. England, MD, PhD; Roy Fleischmann, MD; and Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH — debate the merits of remission vs. low disease activity as the desired target in the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis.

Treating to target has, since the dawn of targeted biologic and non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, permeated every aspect of rheumatology care.