Objective Increasing numbers of patients are developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at an older age, and optimal treatment of elderly-onset RA (EORA) patients is attracting greater attention. This study aimed to analyze the efficacy and safety of biological/targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs) in EORA and non-EORA elderly patients. Methods A cohort of RA patients treated with b/tsDMARDs were retrospectively analyzed. Among patients who were ≥60 years old, those who developed RA after age 60 years were categorized as EORA, while others were categorized as non-EORA elderly. Disease activity were compared between the EORA and non-EORA elderly groups. Results In total, 1,040 patients were categorized as EORA and 710 as non-EORA elderly. There were not significant differences in characteristics at baseline between the two groups. The proportion of patients with low and high disease activity was comparable at week 2, 22 and 54 between in the EORA and the non-EORA elderly group. There was not significant difference in reasons of the discontinuation of b/tsDMARDs between the two groups. Elderly onset did not affect changes in CDAI and HAQ-DI as well as reasons of the discontinuation between the two groups. The trajectory analysis on CDAI-responses to b/tsDMARDs for 54 weeks identified three response patterns. The proportions of patients categorized into each group and CDAI-response trajectories to b/tsDMARDs were very similar between EORA and non-EORA elderly patients. Conclusion CDAI response patterns to b/tsDMARDs and hazard ratio of adverse events were similar between EORA and non-EORA elderly patients.
Expression of CCR3, SOX5 and LC3 in patients with elderly onset rheumatoid arthritis and the clinical significance
