Overall, 23.4% of patients achieved remission and 13.7% achieved low disease activity, and a respective 10.3% and 13.7% met criteria for sustained remission or sustained low disease activity. Just 3.4% met Boolean criteria for remission.
“The key messages are: There is a really important difference between remission and low disease activity score categories and that treating people to a remission target means they will do better in terms of quality of life outcomes over time compared to just stopping at a low disease activity,” Dr. Norton noted.
There was an important caveat to stating that remission should be the primary treat-to-target goal, in that there will likely be a relatively small proportion of patients that will achieve the strictest definition of remission, he added. Perhaps different targets need to be set for those with comorbidities or who are older.
“So, while remission should be a primary target there should be other targets considered alongside that,” he proposed.
Dr. Norton and his coauthors had nothing to disclose.
SOURCE: Nikiphorou E et al. Rheumatology. 2018;57[Suppl. 3]:key075.189.