Achievement of minimal disease activity and progression of radiographic changes in early psoriatic arthritis one year after initiation of treatment in "Treat to Target" strategy (preliminary results of the REMARKA study)

Objective: To study the frequency of achievement of MDA and X-ray progression in patients with early PsA treated according to the T2T strategy 1 year after initiation of treatment. Subjects and methods. Forty patients (22 women) with active ePsA, who met the CASPAR criteria (mean age was 38,4+11,1 years, the median duration of PsA - 7,0 [4,0; 18,0] months, the duration of psoriasis - 38,0 [9,5; 114,0] months, DAS - 3,8 [3,2; 4,7]), were included in the REMARKA study. At the start of the study all patients received subcutaneous methotrexate (MTX) in a dose of 20-25 mg/week. If high or moderate disease activity persisted after 3-6 months, patients (n=21) were transferred to combined therapy with MTX and a biological agent (BA). The remaining 19 patients continued MTX monotherapy. Initially and one year later, the MDA criteria were evaluated (tender joint count 0,05). In 29 out of 40 patients (72,5%), no radiographic progression was detected neither in the ES nor in the JSN; 13 out of 29 (45%) received MTX and 16 (55%) - MTX + BA. In 11 out of 40 (27,5%) patients, negative radiographic changes according to ES (n=10) and JSNS (n=4) were detected, with three patients having progression in both scores. In this group, 6 patients (54,5%) received MTX monotherapy and 5 (45,5%) - MTX + BA. After 1 year, 25 (62,5%) patients achieved MDA. Among patients who did not achieve MDA (n=15) after 1 year, the ES was significantly higher at the beginning of the study compared to those who achieved MDA: median 3 [2; 9] and 0 [0; 3], respectively (p