To the Editor:
We thank Dr. Abeles for his interest1 in our article2. Our analysis extends earlier observations of sustained inhibition of progressive joint damage3.
As stated in our article, the study was a posthoc analysis evaluating patients with an initial response [≥ 20% reduction in both swollen joint count (SJC) and tender joint count (TJC)] to rituximab (RTX) and who were eligible to receive repeat treatment courses based on the physician’s determination of clinical need and evidence of active disease (defined as both SJC and TJC ≥ 8). The minimum re-treatment interval was 24 weeks following course 1 and 16 weeks for course 2 and all subsequent courses although, as mentioned in the article, median treatment intervals among …
Address correspondence to Dr. Keystone, Rebecca MacDonald Centre for Arthritis and Autoimmune Diseases, Mount Sinai Hospital, The Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Building, 2nd Floor, Room 2–006, Box 4, 60 Murray Street, Toronto, ON M5G 1X5, Canada., E-mail: edkeystone{at}mtsinai.on.ca