Abstract
This study compared early clinical efficacy among three anti-TNF agents (IFX, ETN, ADA) in RA patients. Bio-naive RA patients treated with concomitant MTX were included. Clinical data at initiation and at 6 weeks in IFX-G (n＝64) and clinical data at initiation and at 4weeks in ETN-G (n＝43) and ADA-G (n＝24) were used. Improvement rate (%) and improvement value (Delta) of 6 indices (DAS28-ESR, DAS28-C RP, VAS, CRP, ESR, MMP-3, mHAQ) were compared between groups. Comparison between ETN 25mg/w-G and ETN 50mg/w-G was also performed. d-DAS28-ESR was 1.20 in IFX-G, 1.20 in ETN-G and 1.11 in ADA-G.%DAS28-ESR was 22.3% in IFX-G, 22.0% in ETN-G and 18.3% in ADA-G. No significant difference was observed between groups. d-DAS28-ESR in ETN 25mg/w-G was 1.32 and 1.01 in ETN 50mg/w-G. There was no significant difference in early clinical efficacy between ETN 25mg/w-G and ETN 50mg/w-G. This study showed that all three anti-TNF agents had the same extent of early clinical efficacy and that early efficacy in ETN 25mg/w-G was comparable to that in ETN 50mg/w-G.
