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Four-year follow-up of atherogenicity in rheumatoid arthritis patients: from the nationwide Korean College of Rheumatology Biologics Registry

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Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) and targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs) on lipid profile and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to compare the occurrence of dyslipidemia between patients using bDMARDs, tsDMARDs, or conventional DMARDs (cDMARDs).

Methods

Data on lipid profile, AIP, and occurrence of dyslipidemia were collected from the Korean College of Rheumatology BIOlogics registry. A comparison was conducted between patients using bDMARDs (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitor, tocilizumab, abatacept), Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKis), and cDMARDs. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare the occurrence of dyslipidemia between groups, and hazard ratios (HR) were calculated using the cox proportional hazard method.

Results

The data of 917, 826, 789, 691, and 520 RA patients were eligible for analysis at the baseline, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 4-year follow-ups, respectively. Baseline total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) were higher in the cDMARDs group, whereas AIP was comparable. During the 4-year follow-up, AIP was comparable between the groups. The occurrence of dyslipidemia did not show a significant difference when comparing the bDMARDs/tsDMARDs and cDMARDs groups (P=0.06) or the TNF-α inhibitor, tocilizumab, abatacept, JAKi, and cDMARD user groups (P=0.3). In the multivariate cox proportional hazard model, older age (HR=1.03, P=0.005) and concomitant hypertension (HR=2.21, P=0.013) were significantly associated with dyslipidemia occurrence.

Conclusion

Long-term use of bDMARDs and tsDMARDs is relatively safe with regard to lipid profile, AIP, and the occurrence of dyslipidemia in RA patients.

Key Points

• The use of bDMARDs and tsDMARDs did not increase the risk of dyslipidemia than cDMARDs use in patients with RA.

• AIP was comparable between bDMARDs user, tsDMARDs user, and cDMARDs user group in 4-year follow-up data.

• Based on the present study, the long-term use of bDMARDs or tsDMARDs did not significantly deteriorate atherogenic lipid profile nor an increased risk of dyslipidemia in patients with RA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hong Ki Min

  2. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Research Institute of Medical Science, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hae-Rim Kim & Sang-Heon Lee

  3. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kichul Shin

  4. Department of Rheumatology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Hyoun-Ah Kim

  5. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06591, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Hwan Park & Seung-Ki Kwok

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Correspondence to Seung-Ki Kwok.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments). Written informed consent was obtained from each patient. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Konkuk University Medical Center (approval number: 2020-05-003). Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Min, H.K., Kim, HR., Lee, SH. et al. Four-year follow-up of atherogenicity in rheumatoid arthritis patients: from the nationwide Korean College of Rheumatology Biologics Registry. Clin Rheumatol 40, 3105–3113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-021-05613-x

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