The effect of intra-articular injection of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-Fc in knee in patients with spondyloarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the effect of intra-articular injection of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-Fc (rhTNFRFc) in the treatment of knee arthritis in spondyloarthritis (SPA) with that in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods The subjects included in this study were SpA and RA patients with knee arthritis without deformity,moderate or severe bone erosion and obvious joint space narrowing in radiography,who had taken at least 6-week therapy with routine dosage of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) before the study.All subjects received one dose of 25 mg rhTNFRFc injected to the target knee joints after synovial fluid being drawn away before injection.They were followed up for four weeks after injection.The primary end-point was the 4-week change in the moditied hospital for special surgery (HSS) knee score for the target knee.The secondary end-point were the 4-week change in patients assessment of the knee,and investigators assessment of knee,pain VAS of the knee joint when walking or standing,the range of knee inflexion,circumference of the knee cross section,synovium thickness detected by ultrasound in the part of the thickest synovium in the suprapatellar bursa.Paired t test,independed t test and Wilcoxon test were used for statistical analysis.Results Twenty-seven SpA patients and fifteen RA patients were included in the trial.The modified HSS knee score for the SpA group was 66±14 at baseline,86±11 (P＜0.05) at follow-up,and for the RA group,the score was 64±13 at baseline,80±9 (P＜0.05) at follow-up.24.2％ (16.5％-41.9％) improve-ment on the modified HSS knee score was achieved in the SpA group,while 22.2％ (15.3％-37.7％) improvement on the modified HSS knee score was achieved in the RA group (P＞0.05).31.8％ (9.3％-57.3％) improvement on the synovium thickness was achieved in the SpA group,while 1.5％ (-19.3％-25.5％) improvement on the synovium thickness was achieved in the RA group (P＜0.05).Adverse events were observed in six patients in SpA group and two patients in RA group.No serious adverse events had been observed.Conclusion Single intra-articular rhTNFRFc injection is an effective and safe therapeutic option for knee arthritis in both SpA and RA patients.This treatment may relieve knee synovitis in SpA patients more effectively than in RA patients.