Authors: Thita Pacharapakornpong Sakda ArjOng Vallibhakara Butsabong Lerkvaleekul Soamarat Vilaiyuk
Publish Date: 2016/10/31
Volume: 37, Issue: 2, Pages: 251-255
Abstract
Around 40 of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis SJIA in Thailand is steroid dependent or fails to respond to conventional therapy therefore tocilizumab TCZ a humanized antiIL6 receptor antibody was indicated in these patients Due to financial problems some patients cannot receive TCZ treatment immediately following failure of the conventional treatment occurs leading to disability and poor quality of life Therefore this study focused on the outcomes between early and late TCZ treatment in SJIA patients This was an observational study Baseline characteristics and disease severity were collected Patients were divided into the early TCZ treatment group and the late TCZ treatment group The outcomes of this study were the remission rates by the end of the study and treatment response using the American College of Rheumatology Pediatric ACR Pedi 30 50 70 criteria at 3 6 9 and 12 months after TCZ initiation Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine the outcomes Twentythree SJIA patients were included in this study At the end of this study patients in the early TCZ treatment had a remission rate of 545 whereas none in the late TCZ treatment achieved remission At the 12month followup 10 patients 91 in the early TCZ treatment group and 6 patients 50 in the late TCZ achieved ACR Pedi 70 The outcomes of TCZ treatment in SJIA patients depend on the time to start TCZ treatment In the early TCZ treatment SJIA patients had a higher remission rate and better treatment response than patients who received TCZ treatment lateThe authors thank Nattawut Unwanatham Section for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital Mahidol University and Dr Suthat Chottanapund Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute for statistical analysis We also thank Adam Dale a native English and an English language Instructor at IGenius Language Institute for proofreading the English
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