Very Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Responds to Abatacept

Patients with higher MRI inflammation may derive greater benefit from abatacept with methotrexate instead of methotrexate alone, shows a study presented at EULAR 2017 by Dr. Harris Ahmad of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

AVERT (Assessing Very Early Rheumatoid arthritis Treatment) was a Phase IIIb, randomized, 24-month trial with a 12M, double-blind treatment period, and included contrast-enhanced MRI of the dominant hand and wrist. Of 235 randomized and treated patients, 225 (95.7%) had MRI data at baseline. The proportion of patients with low baseline MRI inflammation attaining remission at M12 was similar regardless of treatment. In patients with high MRI inflammation, remission rates were significantly greater in pts treated with abatacept combined with methotrexate instead of methotrexate alone.

MRI inflammation appears to be a predictor of subsequent clinical treatment response to abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis. MRI may have clinical utility in treatment decisions beyond information obtained from clinical assessments alone.

Disclosures:

This research was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

References:

EULAR Abstract OP0284. Ahmad H, Baker J, Ostergaard M, et al OP0284 Evaluation of the impact of baseline levels of RI-detected inflammation on treatment response in early, seropositive, MTX-NAÏVE RA: data from the avert trial Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2017;76:174.