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. 2021 Jul 17;38(8):4461–4479. doi: 10.1007/s12325-021-01825-4

Table 2.

Treatment patterns of the overall eculizumab user and of eculizumab users stratified by blood transfusion dependence status

Treatment patterns Overall eculizumab user cohort TD cohort TF cohort
N = 151 N = 55 N = 96
Observation period,a years, mean ± SD [median] 1.6 ± 1.3 [1.2] 1.6 ± 1.3 [1.4] 1.6 ± 1.4 [1.1]
Eculizumab infusionsb
 Number of eculizumab infusions, median (IQR)
  Overall 11.0 (5.0–34.0) 9.0 (5.0–29.0) 11.5 (6.5–34.5)
  Induction phasec 4.0 (2.0–4.0) 4.0 (2.0–4.0) 4.0 (2.0–4.0)
  Maintenance phased 8.0 (3.0–30.0) 5.0 (2.0–24.0) 8.0 (3.0–32.0)
 Time between eculizumab infusions, days, median (IQR)e
  Overall 13.7 (11.2–19.4) 13.6 (9.9–19.4) 13.8 (11.7–19.2)
  Induction phasec 7.0 (7.0–8.3) 7.0 (7.0–8.6) 7.0 (7.0–8.3)
  Maintenance phased 14.4 (13.7–21.2) 14.5 (13.4–21.9) 14.4 (13.7–20.5)
   Average time between infusions during maintenance phase, n (%)
    < 14 days 30 (21.9) 13 (27.7) 17 (18.9)
    14 days 40 (29.2) 10 (21.3) 30 (33.3)
    15–21 days 34 (24.8) 11 (23.4) 23 (25.6)
    > 21 days 33 (24.1) 13 (27.7) 20 (22.2)
 Patients with eculizumab discontinuatione, n (%) 92 (60.9) 36 (65.5) 56 (58.3)
  Duration of eculizumab treatment until discontinuation, days, mean ± SD [median]f 204.5 ± 275.0 [87.5] 154.9 ± 234.6 [87.0] 236.4 ± 295.7 [87.5]
 Time to discontinuation using Kaplan–Meier analysis, years, median 0.7 0.5 0.9
Blood transfusions
 Number of blood transfusions, mean (min, max) 3.1 (0.0, 54.0) 8.5 (1.0, 54.0)
 Patients with ≥ 1 blood transfusion during follow-up period, n (%) 55 (36.4) 55 (100.0) 0 (0.0)
Iron chelation therapy
 Number of iron chelation therapy, mean (min, max) 0.2 (0.0, 11.0) 0.5 (0.0, 11.0)
 Patients with ≥ 1 iron chelation therapy during follow-up period, n (%) 4 (2.6) 4 (7.3) 0 (0.0)

IQR interquartile range, SD standard deviation

aDefined as the period from index date (i.e., date of first eculizumab infusion) to the earliest of end of continuous healthcare plan enrollment or end of data availability (September 30, 2019)

bEculizumab was identified using the HCPCS procedure code J1300

cThe induction phase was defined as the first 4 weeks of eculizumab treatment

dThe maintenance phase was defined as the fifth week of eculizumab treatment and onwards

eDiscontinuation was defined as a gap of more than 42 days between infusions or the last infusion and the end of follow-up (i.e., the earliest of end of continuous healthcare plan enrollment or end of data availability)

fDuration of treatment was calculated among the subset of patients discontinuing treatment