RA patients have increased risk of CVD compared with the general population that is not fully explained by traditional risk factors. This is a post-hoc analysis of data from a clinical trial that compared IL-6 and TNF-α signaling inhibition to compare changes in lipids and lipid-associated CV risk markers in 324 patients treated with TCZ IV q4w or ADA SC q2w for 24 weeks. HDL-SAA and sPLA2 IIA is also measured in an additional subpopulation of 87 and 97 TCZ and ADA patients, respectively.Greater...

September 2015

The humanised monoclonal antibody, Clazakizumab (CLZ), binds to circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) cytokine rather than the IL-6 receptor, blocking both classical and trans-signalling. The purpose of this phase 2B study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of clazakizumab in patients with inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX). Data on selected response rates – ACR20/50/70, DAS28-CRP, SDAI ≤3.3, CDAI ≤2.8 and the ACR/EULAR Boolean definition – and adverse events were collected from 418 patie...

December 2014

Systemic inflammation, reflected by high levels of C-reactive protein and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, has been identified as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the most important cause of death in RA and SpA. Studies with TNF antagonists have given contradictory results on cardiovascular risk. As such, this systemic literature search aimed to analyse lipid changes in RA and SpA subjects treated with biologics or tofacitinib in randomized clinical trials.

The s...

February 2014

Systematic literature reviews were undertaken to assess the efficacy of csDMARDs, glucocorticoids and tofacitinib in the treatment of RA. The first two were updates to reviews conducted for the 2010 recommendations while the tofacitinib SLR was a complete review.Two studies identified by the csDMARD SLR, tREACH and TEAR, compared efficacy between MTX mono- and combination therapy (MTX+SSZ+HQ). Both of these studies found there was no benefit to immediate triple therapy.Further studies analysing ...
Two systematic literature reviews were undertaken to update the safety findings on synthetic and biological DMARDs in order to inform the updates to the EULAR recommendations to the treatment of RA. Of 10,559 articles screened, 49 were included for review covering a diverse range of outcomes. In the main these showed the patients on bDMARDs had a significantly greater risk of serious infections and tuberculosis compared with csDMARDs, while differences in data between studies mean a slight incre...

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November 2013

The 2010 EULAR recommendations represented a significant step forward in the management of rheumatoid arthritis, and they have been widely adopted across the world. However, in the rapidly evolving world of rheumatology, it was recognised that a substantial amount of new evidence has accumulated, both on agents approved at that time as well as data on new compounds that have become available over the last 3–4 years. This motivated EULAR to form an international task force to update their recomme...

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