Table 1.
Patient characteristics at baseline a
| Abatacept (n = 43) | Rituximab (n = 46) | TNFi (n = 50) | Total (n = 139) | P -value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean age (SD), yr | 56.16 (9.95) | 57.09 (11.08) | 55.81 (12.53) | 56.34 (11.24) | 0.852 | |
| Female sex, % | 88.4 (n = 38) | 63.0 (n = 29) | 74.0 (n = 37) | 74.8 (n = 104) | 0.022 | |
| Median disease duration (IQR), yr | 6.56 (2.56 to 11.96) | 7.60 (3.22 to 16.25) | 5.64 (1.79 to 12.00) | 6.25 (2.43 to 14.30) | 0.174 | |
| RF-positive, % | 56.4 (n = 22) | 80.0 (n = 36) | 62.5 (n = 30) | 66.7 (n = 88) | 0.054 | |
| Mean DAS28 (SD) | 4.74 (1.46) | 4.87 (1.24) | 4.92 (1.11) | 4.84 (1.26) | 0.805 | |
| Mean HAQ-DI (SD) | 1.46 (0.64) | 1.39 (0.71) | 1.37 (0.65) | 1.40 (0.66) | 0.822 | |
| Median previous csDMARDs (IQR), n | 2 (2 to 3) | 3 (2 to 3) | 2 (2 to 3) | 2 (2 to 3) | 0.192 | |
| Comedication, % | 0.894 | |||||
| csDMARD + Corticosteroidb | 20.9 (n = 9) | 28.3 (n = 11) | 28.0 (n = 14) | 25.9 (n = 36) | ||
| csDMARDb | 41.9 (n = 18) | 50.0 (n = 23) | 38.0 (n = 19) | 43.2 (n = 60) | ||
| Corticosteroid | 11.6 (n = 5) | 8.7 (n = 4) | 10.0 (n = 5) | 8.6 (n = 12) | ||
| None (biologic monotherapy) | 25.6 (n = 11) | 17.4 (n = 8) | 24.0 (n = 12) | 22.3 (n = 31) | ||
acsDMARD, Conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; DAS28, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints; HAQ-DI, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index; IQR, Interquartile range; RF, Rheumatoid factor; SD, Standard deviation. bOf the patients who took the biologic in combination with a csDMARD, methotrexate was the comedication in 75.0% of patients in the abatacept group, in 91.4% in the rituximab group and in 86.0% in the TNFi group.