Sequential Combination Therapy Versus Monotherapy: A Lack of Benefit in Time to Inflammatory Bowel Disease-Related Surgery

Impact of thiopurine discontinuation at anti-tumour necrosis factor initiation in inflammatory bowel disease treatment: a nationwide Danish cohort study

BACKGROUND

Escalation to anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients on thiopurine is a common clinical scenario. However, the impact of discontinuing thiopurine at escalation is unclear.

AIM

To assess the impact of discontinuing versus continuing thiopurine therapy at anti-TNF initiation.

METHODS

We used the Danish registries to establish a national cohort of patients with IBD on thiopurine therapy prior to initiating anti-TNF from 2003 to 2018. We compared patients discontinuing thiopurine therapy within 90 days of anti-TNF initiation to those continuing. Our primary outcome was a composite of any new oral corticosteroid use, IBD-related hospitalization, surgery or death. We used Cox regression models to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS

Of the 10,352 anti-TNF exposed patients, 2,630 (1590 Crohn's disease (CD) and 1040 ulcerative colitis (UC)) received thiopurines prior to anti-TNF. After anti-TNF initiation, 979 patients discontinued thiopurines. Discontinuing thiopurines within 90 days of anti-TNF initiation, increased the risk of the primary outcome (aHR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.10-1.36), particularly for IBD-related hospitalization (aHR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.00-1.31) and oral corticosteroid use (aHR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.13-1.44). This increased risk of the primary outcome was seen in both CD (aHR: 1.17; 95% CI 1.02-1.34) and UC (aHR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.12-1.55).

CONCLUSIONS

In a nationwide cohort study of IBD patients, we observed that discontinuing thiopurines after anti-TNF initiation was associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, in particular an increase in hospitalizations. Further interventional studies exploring this common clinical scenario are required.

The shining DIAMOND for evidence-based treatment strategies for Crohn's disease

Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α antibodies are effective therapeutic agents to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In the biologic era, the development of immunogenicity has been a critical issue for secondary loss of response. The superiority of anti-TNF therapy in combination with immunomodulators (IMs) is well-established for infliximab (IFX) but less evident for adalimumab (ADA). To clarify the contribution of thiopurines to ADA-treated patients with Crohn's disease (CD), the deep remission of immunomodulator and adalimumab combination therapy for Crohn's disease (DIAMOND) studies provided the first randomized comparison of efficacy between ADA monotherapy and ADA with thiopurine. The results of the DIAMOND and DIAMOND2 studies revealed the appropriate ADA therapeutic strategy for immunosuppressant-naïve patients with active CD based on therapeutic drug monitoring, endoscopic findings and clinical issues regarding the use of thiopurines.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of oral versus intravenous drip infusion of levofloxacin in the treatment of acute lower respiratory tract infection in Chinese elderly patients

Aim

Pharmacoeconomic cost-effectiveness analysis of two different dosage regimens of levofloxacin in the treatment of acute lower respiratory tract infection in elderly patients.

Methods

A total of 108 elderly patients with acute lower respiratory tract infection who visited by our hospital between September 2013 and September 2014 were randomly divided into Group A and Group B, with 54 patients in each group. In Group A, levofloxacin injection was given for continuous intravenous infusion treatment, whereas in Group B, levofloxacin injection and levofloxacin capsule were given as sequential therapy (ST). The period of treatment for both the groups was 10 days, and minimum cost analysis was used to analyze the treatment.

Results

Groups A and B had cure rates of 61.1% and 59.3% (P>0.05), effective rates of 88.9% and 83.3% (P>0.05), bacterial clearance rates of 96.3% and 92.6% (P>0.05), and incidence rates of adverse reactions of 7.4% and 3.7% (P>0.05), respectively. Treatment costs of Groups A and B were 1,588 RMB and 1,150 RMB, respectively, whereas the cost-effectiveness of the two groups was at 17.86 and 13.81, respectively (P<0.05).

Conclusion

Levofloxacin ST had relatively higher cost-effectiveness ratio for the treatment of acute lower respiratory tract infection in elderly patients, especially Chinese.