Study of Tapering and Discontinuing Biological DMARDs in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Study of Tapering and Discontinuing Biological DMARDs in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

This study aims to analyses time to disease relapse of RA patients if TNF-α inhibitors are being tapered, the predictive factors that are associated with successful taper of TNF-α inhibitors. Also, investigate the effects associated with dose tapering of TNF-α inhibitors.

Inclusion criteria:

Diagnosed of RA based on the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria and/or 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria of RA depending on the time of diagnosis Age ≥ 20 years old TNF-α inhibitors was prescribed for RA patients refractory to csDMARDs (defined as csDMARD therapy for over 6 months) during 2003/5/2 - 2017/4/30 Dose reduction or discontinuation use of TNF-α inhibitors (2011/1/1-2019/4/30)

Exclusion criteria:

TNF-α inhibitors were discontinued or tapered due to adverse events such as infection, liver transaminase elevation, malignancy and neutropenia.