The prevalence of endoscopic gastric mucosal damage in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients often take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids as supportive drugs. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of endoscopic gastric damage and their prescribed medications under an actual clinical condition. METHODS: We collected the data of 1704 RA patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal fiberscopy. Gastric mucosal erosion and ulcer were classified using modified LANZA score. We analyzed these data with a multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of endoscopic gastric mucosal damage in these RA patients was 16.7% (285 cases). A multiple regression analysis indicated that prednisolone (PSL), NSAIDs and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were independent risk factors associated with the modified LANZA score. PSL and NSAIDs were positively correlated with the score, while the administration of PPIs was inversely correlated with the score. The modified LANZA score in RA patients treated with both PSL and NSAIDs was significantly higher than that in those treated with PSL alone (no NSAIDs use). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that PSL and NSAIDs were exacerbating factors for gastric mucosal damage, while PPIs usage was a protective factor. And, the combined usage of corticosteroids and NSAIDs may induce the development of gastric ulcers.

Study on the frequency and risk factors of moderate-to-severe sleep apnea syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the frequency of moderate-to-severe sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) that possibly influences long-term prognosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to analyze the risk factors for this group. METHODS: We examined respiratory disturbance index (RDI) by polysomnography in 62 hospitalized RA patients. Risk factors of moderate-to-severe SAS (RDI ≥20) were analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: RA was complicated by moderate-to-severe SAS in 13/62 (20.9%) cases. The highest stage of temporomandibular joint abnormality (TMJA) and a high value of health assessment questionnaire-disability index (HAQ-DI) were significant risk factors, according to the results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.010, respectively). Contrary to these results, RDI was not related to the disease activity indexes of RA and other clinical characteristics. CONCLUSION: We clarified that the highest TMJA stage and a high value of HAQ-DI are novel important risk factors for moderate-to-severe SAS in RA patients.

Comparison of the clinical utility of tocilizumab and anti-TNF therapy in AA amyloidosis complicating rheumatic diseases.

OBJECTIVES: Anti-cytokine therapy is reportedly useful in amyloid A (AA) amyloidosis complicating rheumatic diseases. However, to date no studies have directly compared the utility of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibition to that of interleukin-6. The aim of our retrospective study was to compare the clinical utility of tocilizumab (TCZ) and anti-TNF (TNF inhibitor) therapy. METHODS: We studied 42 patients treated with anti-cytokine agents at our hospital: 31 had received a single agent, ten had received two agents and one had received three agents. Patients were divided into a TCZ group (22 patients) and a TNF inhibitor group (32 patients). The main parameters compared were treatment retention rate, serum amyloid A (SAA) profile, renal function profile and clinical disease activity index. RESULTS: The 5-year retention rates were 90.4 (TCZ group) and 34.3 % (TNF inhibitor group) (p = 0.0154, log-rank test). The median SAA fell from 219.2 µg/mL at treatment initiation to 5.0 µg/mL at last observation (TCZ), and from 143.6 to 38.1 µg/mL (TNF inhibitor) (p = 0.0194). Estimated glomerular filtration rate was improved in 72.7 (TCZ) and 34.4 % (TNF inhibitor) of patients (p = 0.0062). The rates of clinical remission or low disease activity at last observation for the TCZ and TNF inhibitor groups were 72.7 and 40.7 % (p = 0.0201), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results, we conclude that TCZ was of greater clinical utility than anti-TNF therapy in our patients with AA amyloidosis complicating rheumatic diseases.

Tocilizumab induced acquired factor XIII deficiency in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Factor XIII is one of the twelve coagulation factors and also known as a fibrin-stabilizing factor. In 2012, we encountered a male RA patient with hemorrhagic factor XIII deficiency who had been treated with tocilizumab for two years. There are few reports regarding the relationship between tocilizumab (a humanized monoclonal antibody against the interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R)) and factor XIII. We measured the factor XIII activity levels in the plasma of 40 RA patients (10 patients treated without biologics, 30 patients treated with biologics (15 patients treated with necrosis factor inhibitors and 15 patients treated with tocilizumab)) and 19 healthy controls. Consequently, the tocilizumab group exhibited lower levels than the other three groups according to the Steel-Dwass test (P<0.01). Furthermore, we compared the plasma factor XIII activity levels and the plasma factor XIII concentrations in the RA patients treated with biologics. Pearson's correlation test was used to assess the relationship between the factor XIII activity levels and the plasma factor XIII concentrations (r=0.449, P=0.019). According to the multiple regression analysis, the treatment with tocilizumab is an independent risk factor for plasma factor XIII reduction in RA patients. In conclusion, RA patients treated with tocilizumab, an IL-6R blocker, are at risk of developing acquired factor XIII deficiency. The mechanisms underlying the reduced factor XIII activity observed in RA patients treated with tocilizumab may result from the quantitative reduction in the plasma. These data imply that IL-6 plays an important role in maintaining the factor XIII activity level.

Successful tocilizumab treatment in a patient with adult-onset Still's disease complicated by chronic active hepatitis B and amyloid A amyloidosis.

We report successful tocilizumab (TCZ) use in a patient with adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) complicated by chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and AA amyloidosis (AAA). Treatments with corticosteroid and various types of immunosuppressants were unsuccessful. Aggravation of CHB ensued, and entecavir was started. Normalisation of liver function and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA were confirmed. TCZ was then started. His arthritis and AAA improved dramatically. TCZ is an excellent treatment for refractory AOSD and is feasible in an HBV-infected patient.

Anti-citrullinated peptide antibody-negative RA is a genetically distinct subset: a definitive study using only bone-erosive ACPA-negative rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES: ACPA is a highly specific marker for RA. It was recently reported that ACPA can be used to classify RA into two disease subsets, ACPA-positive and ACPA-negative RA. ACPA-positive RA was found to be associated with the HLA-DR shared epitope (SE), but ACPA negative was not. However, the suspicion remained that this result was caused by the ACPA-negative RA subset containing patients with non-RA diseases. We examined whether this is the case even when possible non-RA ACPA-negative RA patients were excluded by selecting only patients with bone erosion. METHODS: We genotyped HLA-DRB1 alleles for 574 ACPA-positive RA, 185 ACPA-negative RA (including 97 erosive RA) and 1508 healthy donors. We also tested whether HLA-DR SE is associated with RF-negative or ANA-negative RA. RESULTS: ACPA-negative RA with apparent bone erosion was not associated with SE, supporting the idea that ACPA-negative RA is genetically distinct from ACPA-positive RA. We also tested whether these subsets are based on autoantibody-producing activity. In accordance with the ACPA-negative RA subset, the RF-negative RA subset showed a clearly distinct pattern of association with SE from the RF-positive RA. In contrast, ANA-negative as well as ANA-positive RA was similarly associated with SE, suggesting that the subsets distinguished by ACPA are not based simply on differences in autoantibody production. CONCLUSIONS: ACPA-negative erosive RA is genetically distinct from ACPA-positive RA.