RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Consistently Good Clinical Response in Patients with Early Axial Spondyloarthritis After 3 Years of Continuous Treatment with Etanercept: Longterm Data of the ESTHER Trial JF The Journal of Rheumatology JO J Rheumatol FD The Journal of Rheumatology SP jrheum.140056 DO 10.3899/jrheum.140056 A1 In-Ho Song A1 Kay-Geert Hermann A1 Hildrun Haibel A1 Christian E. Althoff A1 Denis Poddubnyy A1 Joachim Listing A1 Anja Weiß A1 Beate Buß A1 Bruce Freundlich A1 Ekkehard Lange A1 Rieke Alten A1 Martin Rudwaleit A1 Joachim Sieper YR 2014 UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2014/07/10/jrheum.140056.abstract AB Objective In patients with early active axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) with a disease duration of < 5 years, the longterm efficacy of 3 years of continuous etanercept (ETN) treatment was assessed. Methods In a previously reported ESTHER trial, patients with axSpA were randomized to treatment with ETN (n = 40) versus sulfasalazine (SSZ; n = 36) in the first year. We analyzed the clinical, laboratory, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) response in the pooled dataset of patients (study population; n = 61), including patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS, n = 31) and nonradiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA, n = 30) who were continuously treated with ETN for 3 consecutive years. Data were analyzed using the last observation carried forward and completer analysis. Results In the entire group of patients in the study population (n = 61), the mean Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) decreased from 5.7 (± 1.3) at baseline to 2.6 (± 2.4) at Year 3. The Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) decreased from 3.4 (± 0.8) to 1.5 (± 1.0). Also, mean values for MRI spine and sacroiliac joint scores showed a significant decrease. Response rates in the nr-axSpA group were similar and at least as good compared to the AS group for all outcome measures. When comparing remission stages, we found that ASDAS inactive disease correlated better with C-reactive protein and MRI remission than with Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society partial remission. Conclusion There was a consistent and sustained clinical response in patients with early axSpA treated with ETN over 3 years. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT00844142.