Tofacitinib improves atherosclerosis despite up-regulating serum cholesterol in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis: a cohort study.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased cardiovascular (CV) risk. This study aimed to analyze the effects of Tofacitinib treatment, a Janus kinase inhibitor, on atherosclerosis in patients with RA. Patients with an active RA (28-joint disease activity score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate > 3.

The effect of tocilizumab on bone mineral density in patients with methotrexate-resistant active rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of therapy with tocilizumab (TCZ), an anti-IL-6 receptor antibody, on BMD of the lumbar spine and femoral neck in patients with RA.

Methods: Eighty-six patients with active RA (indicated by a 28-joint DAS ESR >3.2) despite treatment with MTX 12 mg/week were included in this open-label prospective study and started on TCZ (8 mg/kg every 4 weeks).

Tocilizumab monotherapy reduces arterial stiffness as effectively as etanercept or adalimumab monotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis: an open-label randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare the respective effects of tocilizumab (TCZ) monotherapy, etanercept (ETN) monotherapy, and adalimumab (ADA) monotherapy on arterial stiffness in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in an open-label, randomized controlled trial.

Methods: Patients with RA were eligible if they had active disease (28-joint Disease Activity Score > 3.2) and no prior treatment with methotrexate or biologics.

Very early improvements in the wrist and hand assessed by power Doppler sonography predicting later favorable responses in tocilizumab-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To investigate the response of tocilizumab (TCZ) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by ultrasonographic evaluation of changes in the wrist and hand, and to determine whether such assessments during early TCZ treatment predict later clinical outcome.

Methods: Thirty-two RA patients about to receive TCZ treatment were examined by ultrasound at baseline and after 2 weeks using the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials semiquantitative scoring of 22 joints (both wrists, proximal interphalangeal joints 1-5, and metacarpophalangeal joints 1-5) as well as clinical and laboratory variables, leading to a calculation of composite indexes. The aim was to determine whether methotrexate treatment and clinical, laboratory, and ultrasonographic evaluation after 2 weeks of TCZ treatment predict treatment outcome at 24 weeks, as assessed by the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28).