Drug-specific risk and characteristics of lupus and vasculitis-like events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with TNFi: results from BSRBR-RA

OBJECTIVE To compare the risk of lupus-like events (LLEs) and vasculitis-like events (VLEs) in tumour necrosis factor-α inhibitor (TNFi)-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to those receiving non-biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (nbDMARDs). METHODS Patients were recruited to the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register-RA, a national prospective cohort study. Two cohorts recruited between 2001 and 2015: (1) patients starting first TNFi (adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab and certolizumab) (n=12 937) and (2) biological-naïve comparison cohort receiving nbDMARDs (n=3673). The risk of an event was compared between the two cohorts using Cox proportional-hazard models, adjusted using propensity scores. Rates of LLE/VLE were compared between TNFi and nbDMARD patients. RESULTS The crude incidence rates for LLEs were: TNFi 10/10 000 patient-years (pyrs) (95% CI 8 to 13) and nbDMARD 2/10 000 pyrs (95% CI 1 to 6); for VLEs: TNFi 15/10 000 pyrs (95% CI 12 to 19) and nbDMARD 7/10 000 pyrs (95% CI 4 to 12). The risk of both events was highest in the first year of TNFi treatment. After adjusting for differences in baseline characteristics, there was no difference in risk of LLEs (adjHR 1.86; 95% CI 0.52 to 6.58) or VLEs (adjHR 1.27; 95% CI 0.40 to 4.04) for TNFi compared to nbDMARD-treated patients. Infliximab conferred the highest overall risk, followed by etanercept, although 95% CIs overlapped following adjustment. CONCLUSIONS In one of the largest biological registers, the absolute risk of both events is low. The addition of TNFi to nbDMARD does not alter the risk of either event in patients with RA selected for TNFi. This is the first study to assess the risk of these outcomes in a prospective, observational cohort.