Response to rituximab 6 months after starting treatment.
| Outcome | Entire Cohort, n = 646 | Cases of Anti-TNF Failure, n = 540 | Anti-TNF-naive Patients, n = 106 | p† | RF-positive, n = 424 | RF-negative, n = 203 | p†† | RTX + MTX, n = 343 | RTX Monotherapy, n = 143 | RTX + Other nbDMARD, n = 160 | p# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean change in DAS28 (95% CI) | −1.42 (−1.53, −1.30) | −1.36 (−1.49, −1.23) | −1.71 (−1.98, −1.44) | 0.03* | −1.49 (−1.63, −1.34) | −1.27 (−1.46, −1.07) | 0.09* | −1.43 (−1.59, −1.28) | −1.43 (−1.69, −1.18) | −1.36 (−1.60, −1.12) | 0.86** |
| EULAR response, n (%) | |||||||||||
| Good | 111 (17.18) | 87 (16.11) | 24 (22.64) | 77 (18.16) | 28 (13.79) | 62 (18.08) | 20 (13.99) | 29 (18.13) | |||
| Moderate | 279 (43.19) | 229 (42.41) | 50 (47.17) | 0.06*** | 187 (44.10) | 85 (41.87) | 0.20*** | 148 (43.15) | 65 (45.45) | 66 (41.25) | 0.82*** |
| None | 256 (39.63) | 224 (41.48) | 32 (30.19) | 160 (37.74) | 90 (44.33) | 133 (38.77) | 58 (40.56) | 65 (40.63) | |||
| Achieving disease remission, n (%) | |||||||||||
| Yes | 52 (8.05) | 37 (6.85) | 15 (14.15) | 38 (8.96) | 14 (6.90) | 24 (7.00) | 11 (7.69) | 17 (10.63) | |||
| No | 594 (91.95) | 503 (93.15) | 91 (85.85) | 0.01*** | 386 (91.04) | 189 (93.10) | 0.38*** | 319 (93.00) | 132 (92.31) | 143 (89.38) | 0.37*** |
↵† Test of significance between cases of anti-TNF failure and anti-TNF-naive patients.
↵†† Between RF-negative and RF-positive patients.
↵# Among patients with different concurrent nbDMARD.
↵* Two independent samples, t-test.
↵** One-way ANOVA.
↵*** Pearson chi-squared test. TNF: tumor necrosis factor; RF: rheumatoid factor; RTX: rituximab; MTX: methotrexate; nbDMARD: nonbiological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; EULAR: European League Against Rheumatism; DAS28: 28-joint Disease Activity Score.