Withdrawal of infliximab therapy in ankylosing spondylitis in persistent clinical remission, results from the REMINEA study

Table 2 Comparison of significant variables between patients on infliximab according to remission status and patients after infliximab withdrawal according to the absence of clinical relapse

	Infliximab treatment			Infliximab withdrawal
	Clinical persistent remission* (n = 36)	No remission (n = 71)	P value	Clinical relapse** (n = 21)	Free of clinical relapse (n = 12)	P value
Age (years), mean ± SD	38.52 ± 11.96	3.39 ± 11.81	0.05	40 ± 12	37 ± 12	ns
Disease duration (years)†, mean ± SD	8.94 ± 8.09	13.69 ± 11.29	0.02	9 ± 8.0	9 ± 9.0	ns
CRP (mg/dl), mean ± SD	3.41 ± 3.65	1.63 ± 2.10	0.01	3.9 ± 3.5	3.0 ± 3.1	ns
BASDAI score (cm), mean ± SD	5.95 ± 1.85	6.4 ± 1.82	ns	6 ± 2.0	6 ± 2.0	ns
BASFI score (cm)¸ mean ± SD	4.35 ± 2.44	5.18 ± 2.81	ns	4 ± 3.0	5 ± 2.0	ns

SD standard deviation, CRP C-reactive protein, BASDAI Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, BASFI Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index
*Clinical persistent remission: BASDAI ≤ 2 and normal C-protein reactive (CRP) and the absence of active arthritis and/or enthesitis and/or any otherextra-articular manifestation during the last 6 months in the absence of any additional steroid and/or NSAID treatment, refers to patients under IFX treatment
**Relapse: any time period as newly appearing BASDAI ≥ 4 and/or CRP ≥ 0.8 mg/dl after treatment with IFX withdrawal
^†50% of patients had less than 10 years of disease duration

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