THURSDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with ankylosing spondylitis who match British Society for Rheumatology guidelines for anti-TNF therapy show good response to treatment with many being able to stop taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), according to a report in the March issue of Rheumatology.
Chris Deighton, M.D., and a colleague from Derbyshire Royal Infirmary in Derby, U.K., measured disease activity, pain and erythrocyte sedimentation rate in 30 patients with ankylosing spondylitis before and after anti-TNF treatment. The economic viability of anti-TNF therapy has been called into question because of discrepancies in randomized clinical trials.
Two months after treatment, 29 patients showed a dramatic response with average disease activity index dropping from 6.8 to 3.2, which was maintained for up to 20 months of follow-up. Nearly 52 percent of patients were able to discontinue taking NSAIDS. Another eight patients were able to reduce their NSAID dose.
"In our experience the British Society for Rheumatology ankylosing spondylitis anti-TNF therapy guidelines select patients with ongoing active disease," the authors write. "Any health economic analyses of anti-TNF in U.K. clinical practice need to take these observations into account."
The authors received support from Wyeth, Abbott and Schering Plough.
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