To investigate the trends in the activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over the past 8 years and evaluate the value of treat-to target (T2T) strategy in daily practice.
All the medical records of RA patients from 2009 to 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Disease activity scores at obtained visits were measured by DAS28-CRP, DAS28-ESR, SDAI and CDAI. To display trends over years, both mean and time-adjusted methods were applied in calculation of annual disease activity and remission rate. Disease activity and remission rate were also compared before and after the year 2011 when application of T2T strategy was initiated in our centre. Furthermore, a sub-cohort study including T2T and non-T2T period groups was conducted with outcome of cumulative percentage of remission and time to achieve first remission during the first year follow-up.
In total, 1,001 patients with 6,944 clinical visits were included. Over an eight-year period, significant improvements were witnessed in disease activity and remission rate, measured by all four indices (p<0.0001). More patients achieved lower disease activity and higher remission rates after T2T adherence in 2011 compared to those in the years 2009 and 2010 (p<0.0001). Moreover, sub-cohort study revealed that more patients (49.3-73.2% vs. 19.1-34.5%, OR=2.4-3.0) achieved remission with a shorter median time compared with the non-T2T period group (p<0.0001), particularly in DAS28-CRP (21 vs. >52 weeks), DAS28-ESR (37 vs. >52 weeks).
Over the past 8 years, the RA activity has substantially decreased and T2T strategy was directly attributable to the favourable changes in clinical practice.