Infliximab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis-induced specific antinuclear and antiphospholipid autoantibodies without autoimmune clinical manifestations: a two-year prospective study

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of patients

	Control	Rheumatoid arthritis	Ankylosing spondylitis
Number of patients	30	24	15
Mean age, years (range)	63 (30–83)	56 (26–77)	41 (26–57)
Number of women (%)	23 (76.7)	16 (66.7)	4 (26.7)
Disease duration, years (range)	7.4 (1–22)	12 (3–32)	17 (6–30)
Infliximab treatment (mg/kg)	0	3	5
Concomitant medication
Number of patients with
NSAID	22	10	5
Corticosteroids	19	19	8
Methotrexate	30	24	6
Side effects
Number of patients with
Allergy		3 M^a, 1 S^a	1 S^a
Infections		2 M^a, 2 S^a	2 M^a, 1 S^a
Other (amyloidosis)		0	3 M^a
Inefficacy of treatment
Number of patients		2	2
		Months 8 and 10	Months 5 and 7

AS, ankylosing spondylitis; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; RA, rheumatoid arthritis.
^aSignificant side effects and inefficacy that could lead to infliximab discontinuation. If side effects were severe (S), infliximab was stopped; thus nine patients discontinued infliximab treatment before the end of the study, between 3 and 18 months in 5 RA and 2 AS patients. If moderate (M), infliximab was continued. The severe infections were pulmonary tuberculosis (RA), septic pericarditis (AS) and Streptococcus bovis endocarditis (RA). Two severe anaphylactic reactions during infliximab infusion (1 RA, 1 AS) led to discontinuation of treatment and in one case (RA) required resuscitation. Three patients with severe long-standing AS were suspected of amyloidosis at the start of infliximab treatment because of nephritic proteinuria. The diagnosis was confirmed by renal biopsy and the infusion carried out.

ISSN: 1478-6362