Abstract
In patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), high disease activity impairs fertility outcomes and increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of a modern treatment approach, including treat-to-target (T2T) and the prescription of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, in patients with RA with a wish to conceive or who are pregnant. Patients were derived from the Preconception Counseling in Active RA (PreCARA) cohort. Patients with a wish to conceive or who are pregnant were treated according to a modified T2T approach, in which the obvious restrictions of pregnancy were taken into account. Results of the PreCARA study were compared with results of the Pregnancy-induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis (PARA) study, a historic reference cohort on RA during pregnancy. Patients in the PARA cohort were treated according to the standards of that time (2002–2010). Differences in disease activity over time between the two cohorts were tested using a linear mixed model. 309 patients with RA were included in the PreCARA study, 188 children were born. 47.3% of the patients used a TNF inhibitor at any time during pregnancy. Mean disease activity over time in the PreCARA cohort was lower than in the reference cohort (p<0.001). In the PreCARA cohort, 75.4% of the patients were in low disease activity (LDA) or remission before pregnancy increasing to 90.4% in the third trimester, whereas in the PARA cohort, these percentages were 33.2% and 47.3%, respectively. This first study on a modern treatment approach in pregnant patients with RA shows that LDA and remission are an attainable goal during pregnancy, with 90.4% of patients achieving this in the third trimester.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 859-864 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This investigator-initiated study was supported by UCB where UCB provided financial support. This work was supported by the Dutch Arthritis Foundation (ReumaNederland) (project number: LLP-26), a non-profit organisation. Competing interests None declared. Patient and public involvement Provided in the Methods section. Patient consent for publication Obtained. Ethics approval Approval obtained (MEC-2011-032). Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. Data availability statement No data are available. Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.
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