title: Retrospective clinical study on the notable efficacy and related factors of infliximab therapy in a rheumatoid arthritis management group in Japan: one-year outcome of joint destruction (RECONFIRM-2J).
abstract: The anti-TNF-alpha chimeric monoclonal antibody infliximab is the first biologic to be approved for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Japan, and post-marketing surveillance of all of the Japanese cases treated with infliximab has been conducted to explore the safety of infliximab therapy. In addition, a retrospective clinical study on the notable efficacy and related factors of infliximab therapy in an RA management group in Japan (RECONFIRM and RECONFIRM-2) has demonstrated clinical responses. However, information on the effect of infliximab on joint destruction in Japanese RA patients remains insufficient. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed X-ray data from 67 patients in whom both hand and foot X-rays at baseline and at 54 weeks had been available among the 410 cases in the RECONFIRM-2 study. By scoring the X-rays according to the modified van der Heijde (vdH)-Sharp method, we found that the total vdH-Sharp score in the RA patients before infliximab therapy was 104.40+/-87.34 and the yearly progression was 21.33, indicating relatively rapid progression. After infliximab therapy for 54 weeks, the total vdH-Sharp score at 54 weeks was 104.37+/-86.87 and the estimated yearly progression was -0.03, indicating the almost complete inhibition of progression. The RECONFIRM-2J study confirmed the significant ability of infliximab to halt joint destruction in Japanese RA patients, and showed that joint destruction was significantly associated with disease activity and the dose of MTX in the patients with moderate and advanced disease durations, respectively, before infliximab therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University, 1981 Tsujido-machi, Kamoda, Kawagoe, Saitama, 350-8550, Japan. tsutake@saitama-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamanaka
authors.forename: Eisuke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Hayato
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagasawa
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nawata
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikari
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Hideto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kameda
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mochizuki
authors.forename: Kouichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amano
authors.forename: Yoshiya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D033023:Foot Joints / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D050823:Hand Joints / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D000069285:Infliximab; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D000069285:Infliximab