Combining the measures of the Clinical Disease Activity Index and the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints provides an opportunity adjust treatment for patients with RA, based on data from a cross-sectional study of 1,585 adults.
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Although the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) is considered more stringent, comparisons with the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) outside of clinical trials are limited, wrote Satoshi Takanashi, MD, of Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, and colleagues.
In a study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the researchers reviewed data from 1,585 consecutive RA patients seen at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo. The average age of the patients was 64 years, 84% were women, and the average duration of disease was 12 years.
Overall, more patients met the CDAI remission criteria but not the DAS28-ESR criteria, with the exception of patients treated with an interleukin-6 inhibitor.
Of the patients in remission based on CDAI, the proportion who were not in DAS28-ESR remission was 19.4% for those treated with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs), 18.2% for tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, 4.2% for IL-6 inhibitors, 27.6% for CTLA4-Ig fusion protein, and 33.3% for Janus kinase inhibitors.
Of the patients in DAS28-ESR remission, those not also in CDAI remission totaled 11.7% with csDMARDs, 15.4% with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, 29.5% with IL-6 inhibitors, 16.0% with CTLA4-Ig, and 14.3% with Janus kinase inhibitors.
“The fact that many patients fulfilled the CDAI but not DAS28-ESR remission could be explained by several reasons including residual synovitis in joints that are not included in the main 28 joints, which could lead to an increase in acute phase reactants and elevate only DAS28-ESR, extra-articular involvement or other comorbidities that could elevate the C-reactive protein irrelevant to arthritis,” the researchers noted. The prevalence of complications was higher in patients in CDAI remission and DAS28-ESR nonremission independent of rheumatoid or nonrheumatoid comorbid conditions, they added.
The findings were limited by several factors, including the cross-sectional study design that did not evaluate longitudinal radiological and functional progression, the researchers wrote.
“However, patients in both CDAI and DAS28-ESR remission were apparently in better condition than those who met either criteria; therefore, in the management of rheumatoid arthritis, assessing patients with two composite measures can yield important opportunities to consider what causes the discrepancy between the measures and adjust treatment appropriately,” they concluded.
The authors did not report having a specific grant for this research. Two of the paper’s three authors disclosed relationships with multiple companies that market drugs for RA.
SOURCE: Takanashi S et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Jan 29. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-216607.