Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

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BACKGROUND: Clinical studies with work participation (WP) as an outcome domain pose particular methodological challenges that hamper interpretation, comparison between studies and meta-analyses. OBJECTIVES: To develop Points to Consider (PtC) for design, analysis and reporting of studies of patients with inflammatory arthritis that include WP as a primary or secondary outcome domain. METHODS: The EULAR Standardised Operating Procedures were followed...

OBJECTIVES: To perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of gout cases versus asymptomatic hyperuricaemia (AH) controls, and gout cases versus normouricaemia controls, and to generate a polygenic risk score (PRS) to determine gout-case versus AH-control status. METHODS: Gout cases and AH controls (serum urate (SU) ≥6.0 mg/dL) from the UK Biobank were divided into discovery (4934 cases, 56 948 controls) and replication (2115 cases, 24 406 controls) cohorts...

OBJECTIVES: The differences of efficacy between each Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors have not been clarified in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical practice. Here, we compared the efficacy between tofacitinib (TOFA) and baricitinib (BARI) in clinical practice. METHODS: The efficacy of TOFA (n=156) in patients with RA was compared with BARI (n=138). Selection bias was reduced to a minimum using propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW)...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of brodalumab, a fully human anti-interleukin-17 receptor A monoclonal antibody, in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). METHODS: In a multicentre, placebo-controlled phase 3 study (NCT02985983) conducted at 48 sites across Japan, Korea and Taiwan, patients with axSpA were randomised 1:1 to receive subcutaneous brodalumab 210 mg (n=80) or placebo (n=79) at baseline, weeks 1 and 2 and every 2 weeks thereafter, during the 16-week double-blind period...

OBJECTIVE: To unravel the dynamical trajectory and features of glucocorticoids (GC) tapering and discontinuation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) commencing GC with concomitant conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs). METHODS: We used data from longitudinal real-world Treat-to-TARget in RA cohort. Patients with RA who started GC and contaminant csDMARDs therapy were included. The changes in GC dose and disease activity were evaluated...

OBJECTIVES: To compare outcomes of different treatment schedules from the care in early rheumatoid arthritis (CareRA) trial over 5 years. METHODS: Patients with RA completing the 2-year CareRA randomised controlled trial were eligible for the 3-year observational CareRA-plus study. 5-year outcomes after randomisation to initial methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy with glucocorticoid bridging (COBRA-Slim) were compared with MTX step-up without glucocorticoids or conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) combinations with glucocorticoid bridging, per prognostic patient group...

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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of denosumab on erosion healing at 2-4 metacarpophalangeal (MCP) head as determined by high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT (HR-pQCT) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with stable disease. METHODS: This was a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Patients with RA with disease activity score 28 joints (DAS28) ≤5.1 were randomised (1:1) to subcutaneous denosumab 60 mg or placebo once every 6 months for 24 months...

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OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether autoimmunity to transcriptional intermediary factor 1 (TIF1)γ, a ubiquitous nuclear autoantigen for myositis-specific autoantibodies detected in patients with dermatomyositis (DM) is pathogenetic for inflammatory myopathy. METHODS: Wild-type, β2 -microglobulin-null, perforin-null, Igμ-null and interferon α/β receptor (IFNAR)-null mice were immunised with recombinant human TIF1γ whole protein. A thymidine incorporation assay was performed using lymph node T cells from TIF1γ-immunised mice...

OBJECTIVES: To determine clinical and genetic features of individuals with relapsing polychondritis (RP) likely caused by pathogenic somatic variants in ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 1 ( UBA1 ). METHODS: Fourteen patients with RP who met the Damiani and Levine criteria were recruited (12 men, 2 women; median onset age (IQR) 72.1 years (67.1-78.0)). Sanger sequencing of UBA1 was performed using genomic DNA from peripheral blood leukocytes or bone marrow tissue...

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OBJECTIVE: To investigate how genetics influence the risk of smoking-related systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) manifestations. METHODS: Patients with SLE (ndiscovery cohort =776, nreplication cohort =836) were genotyped using the 200K Immunochip single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) Array (Illumina) and a custom array. Sixty SNPs with SLE association (p<5.0×10-8 ) were analysed. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) activation was assessed in in vitro stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy controls (n=45)...

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INTRODUCTION: In light of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, protecting vulnerable groups has become a high priority. Persons at risk of severe disease, for example, those receiving immunosuppressive therapies for chronic inflammatory cdiseases (CIDs), are prioritised for vaccination. However, data concerning generation of protective antibody titres in immunosuppressed patients are scarce. Additionally, mRNA vaccines represent a new vaccine technology leading to increased insecurity especially in patients with CID...

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