Key clinical point: Biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD) monotherapy may increase the risk for progression of preexisting distal interphalangeal (DIP) osteoarthritis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), primarily by promoting osteophyte growth.
Major finding: Compared with conventional synthetic DMARD (csDMARD) monotherapy, bDMARD monotherapy was associated with an increased risk for radiographic progression of existing DIP osteoarthritis (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.34; 95% CI, 1.07-1.69), with osteophyte progression (aHR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.11-2.74) being the most elevated osteoarthritis feature with bDMARD vs. csDMARD use.
Study details: This study included 2,234 adult patients with RA from a longitudinal Swiss registry of rheumatic diseases, who had at least 2 hand radiographs and were grouped into cohorts with (n=1,340) or without (n=894) DIP osteoarthritis at baseline.
Disclosures: This study was sponsored by pharmaceutical companies like AbbVie, Amgen, and Gilead. All the authors declared no conflict of interests.
Source: Lechtenboehmer CA et al. Arthritis Res Ther. 2021 Oct 26. doi: 10.1186/s13075-021-02654-0 .