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Objective: Investigate the association between the MUC5B rs35705950 promoter variant and survival in RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD)., Methods: We studied participants in the Veteran Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry with validated ILD diagnoses. Participants were followed until death or end of study period. The MUC5B rs35705950 promoter variant was measured using an Infinium genotyping array, assuming autosomal dominant inheritance. Survival and cause of death were determined from VA death records and the National Death Index. Associations of the MUC5B promoter variant with survival were tested in Cox regression models adjusting for potential confounders., Results: Among 263 participants with RA-ILD (mean age 69 years, 95% male, 73% white race, 85% smoking history), the MUC5B promoter variant was present in 33.5%. Mortality rate was similar between those with (12.2/100PY [95% CI: 9.4, 15.8]) and without (11.1/100PY [95% CI: 9.1, 13.5]) the variant. MUC5B status was not significantly associated with survival overall (aHR 0.97 [95% CI: 0.68, 1.37]) or when stratified by ILD pattern (clinical usual interstitial pneumonia [UIP] aHR 0.86 [95% CI: 0.55, 1.35]; clinical non-UIP aHR 1.15 [95% CI: 0.63, 2.09]). Further, MUC5B status was not significantly associated with respiratory-related (aHR 0.83 [95% CI: 0.42, 1.66]) or non-respiratory causes of death (aHR 1.08 [95% CI: 0.72, 1.62])., Conclusion: While associated with RA-ILD risk, the MUC5B promoter variant was not predictive of survival among RA-ILD patients in this multicentre cohort. Further studies are needed to identify other genetic and non-genetic prognostic factors in RA-ILD to inform disease management., (Published by Oxford University Press 2024.)

Background: Racial and ethnic disparities in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) outcomes are well recognized. However, whether disparities in RA treatment selection and outcomes differ by urban versus rural residence, independent of race, have not been studied. Our objective was to evaluate whether biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARD) initiation after methotrexate use differs by rural versus urban residence among Veterans with RA., Methods: In this retrospective cohort study utilizing national U.S. Veterans Affairs databases, we identified adult patients with RA based on presence of diagnostic codes and DMARD use. We included patients receiving an initial prescription of methotrexate (index date) between 2005 and 2014, with data through 2016 used for follow-up. Urban-rural status was categorized using the Veteran Health Administration's Urban/Rural classification. Our primary outcome of interest was time to biologic initiation within two years of starting methotrexate. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were conducted adjusting for demographics, comorbidities, and rheumatoid factor or anti-CCP positivity., Results: Among 17,395 veterans with RA (88% male, 42% with rural residence) fulfilling eligibility criteria, 3,259 (19%) initiated a biologic within the first two years of follow up. In multivariable models, residence in an urban area was associated with a statistically significant higher biologic use compared to rural areas (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.18)., Conclusion: Our study found only modest differences in initiation of biologic therapies among rural versus urban residing Veterans with RA in the VA healthcare system. These findings suggest that disparities are not easily explained by rurality within the VA healthcare system., (This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: We evaluated associations between adiponectin and the risk of diabetes among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a systemic inflammatory disease associated with metabolic disturbance., Methods: This prospective cohort study included adults with RA from the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry. Adiponectin and inflammatory cytokines/chemokines were measured at enrollment on stored serum samples. Adiponectin levels were categorized, and clinical variables were described across categories (<10 μg/mL; 10-40 μg/mL; >40 μg/mL). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models evaluated associations between adiponectin and incident diabetes adjusting for age, sex, race, smoking status, body mass index (BMI), disease-modifying therapy use, calendar year, and comorbidity. Testing for modification of effect in the context of elevated cytokines/chemokines was performed., Results: Among 2595 patients included in the analysis, those with adiponectin levels >40 μg/mL (N = 379; 15%) were older and had lower BMI. There were 125 new cases of diabetes among 1689 patients without prevalent disease at enrollment. There was an inverse association between adiponectin and incident diabetes; however, the association was positive among patients with adiponectin levels >40 μg/mL. Patients with levels >40 μg/mL were at higher risk compared to those with levels 10-40 μg/mL (HR: 1.70 [1.34, 2.16] P < .001). Those with adiponectin levels >40 μg/mL had significantly higher levels of inflammatory cytokines with evidence of a modified effect of adiponectin on diabetes risk in the setting of inflammation., Conclusion: The relationship between adiponectin and incident diabetes risk is U-shaped in RA. Patients with very high adiponectin levels have greater systemic inflammation and an altered relationship between adiponectin and diabetes risk., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Endocrine Society 2024.)

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) listed the infliximab (IFX) biosimilar, IFX-dyyb (Inflectra), on the Veterans Affairs National Formulary (VANF) in May 2017. In September 2018, biosimilar IFX-abda (Renflexis) became the VANF IFX product. The recommended formulary changes from one IFX biosimilar to another provided a unique opportunity to study IFX utilization patterns in IFX-naïve Veterans with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This study aimed to describe IFX and healthcare utilization during the 365 days after initiation with IFX reference product (RP) or biosimilars IFX-dyyb and IFX-adba. This descriptive study was performed using the VHA Corporate Data Warehouse. All Veterans initiated on IFX-RP (Remicade) or biosimilars IFX-dyyb and IFX-adba between September 1, 2016 and December 30, 2019 were included and followed for 365 days. Veterans enrolled in the VHA for at least 365 days with no evidence of IFX before their index date were considered IFX-naïve. Continuous data on IFX use, laboratory measurements, and healthcare utilization were reported with means, 95% confidence interval (CI), medians, and interquartile ranges. Frequency, proportions, and 95% CIs were presented for categorical variables. Statistical tests included ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis for continuous outcomes, Poisson regression for count-based outcomes (i.e., healthcare utilization visits), and Chi-square for dichotomous outcomes. The study identified 1763 IFX-naïve patients with IBD, and 785, 441, and 537 was indexed to RP, IFX-dyyb, and IFX-adba, respectively. Statistical differences were observed in IFX utilization measures related to dosing, adherence, and persistence. The proportion of days covered (PDC) during the 365-day follow-up period varied among the IFX groups: IFX-RP at 66%, IFX-dyyb at 60%, and IFX-abda at 69% (P value < .001). Persistence with the index IFX product during the 365-day follow-up period also varied: IFX-RP at 43%, IFX-dyyb at 32%, and IFX-abda at 51% (P value < .001). Healthcare utilization and laboratory findings were similar among the IFX groups. IFX utilization and laboratory patterns were clinically similar among the IFX biosimilars and RP groups, suggesting that providers did not modify their practice with biosimilars. Statistically significant differences in IFX utilization patterns are explained by formulary dynamics when the VANF product switched from IFX-dyyb to IFX-abda., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the associations of protein-specific anti-malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde (MAA) antibodies with prevalent and incident rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD)., Methods: Within a multicenter, prospective cohort of US veterans with RA, RA-ILD was validated by medical record review of clinical diagnoses, chest imaging, and pathology. Serum antibodies to MAA-albumin, MAA-collagen, MAA-fibrinogen, and MAA-vimentin (IgA, IgM, and IgG) were measured by a standardized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Associations of anti-MAA antibodies with prevalent and incident RA-ILD were assessed using multivariable regression models adjusting for established RA-ILD risk factors., Results: Among 2,739 participants with RA (88% male, mean age of 64 years), there were 114 with prevalent and 136 with incident RA-ILD (average time to diagnosis: 6.6 years). Higher IgM anti-MAA-collagen (per 1 SD: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.61), IgA anti-MAA-fibrinogen (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.14-1.92), and IgA (aOR 1.78, 95% CI 1.34-2.37) and IgG (aOR 1.48, 95% CI 1.14-1.92) anti-MAA-vimentin antibodies were associated with prevalent RA-ILD. In incident analyses, higher IgA (per one SD: adjusted hazards ratio [aHR] 1.40, 95% CI 1.11-1.76) and IgM (aHR 1.29, 95% CI 1.04-1.60) anti-MAA-albumin antibody concentrations were associated with increased ILD risk. Participants with IgA (aHR 2.13, 95% CI 1.16-3.90) or IgM (aHR 1.98, 95% CI 1.08-3.64) anti-MAA-albumin antibody concentrations in the highest quartile had an approximately two-fold increased risk of incident RA-ILD. Across all isotypes, anti-MAA-fibrinogen, anti-MAA-collagen, and anti-MAA-vimentin antibodies were not significantly associated with incident RA-ILD., Conclusion: Protein-specific anti-MAA antibodies to collagen, fibrinogen, and vimentin were associated with prevalent RA-ILD. IgA and IgM anti-MAA-albumin antibodies were associated with a higher risk of incident RA-ILD. These findings suggest that MAA modifications and resultant immune responses may contribute to RA-ILD pathogenesis., (© 2024 The Author(s). Arthritis & Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: We aimed to evaluate lung cancer risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and RA-interstitial lung disease (ILD)., Methods: We performed a retrospective, matched cohort study of RA and RA-ILD within the Veterans Health Administration (VA) between 2000 and 2019. Patients with RA and RA-ILD were identified with validated administrative-based algorithms, then matched (up to 1:10) on age, gender, and VA enrollment year to individuals without RA. Lung cancers were identified from a VA oncology database and the National Death Index. Conditional Cox regression models assessed lung cancer risk adjusting for race, ethnicity, smoking status, Agent Orange exposure, and comorbidity burden among matched individuals. Several sensitivity analyses were performed., Results: We matched 72,795 patients with RA with 633,937 patients without RA (mean age 63 years; 88% male). Over 4,481,323 patient-years, 17,099 incident lung cancers occurred. RA was independently associated with an increased lung cancer risk (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.58 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-1.64]), which persisted in never smokers (aHR 1.65 [95% CI 1.22-2.24]) and in those with incident RA (aHR 1.54 [95% CI 1.44-1.65]). Compared to non-RA controls, prevalent RA-ILD (n = 757) was more strongly associated with lung cancer risk (aHR 3.25 [95% CI 2.13-4.95]) than RA without ILD (aHR 1.57 [95% CI 1.51-1.64]). Analyses of both prevalent and incident RA-ILD produced similar results (RA-ILD vs non-RA aHR 2.88 [95% CI 2.45-3.40])., Conclusion: RA was associated with a >50% increased risk of lung cancer, and those with RA-ILD represented a particularly high-risk group with an approximate three-fold increased risk. Increased lung cancer surveillance in RA, and especially RA-ILD, may be a useful strategy for reducing the burden posed by the leading cause of cancer death., (Published 2024. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Arthritis & Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.)

Objectives: To quantify associations of serum alarmins with risk of rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD)., Methods: Using serum collected at enrolment, three alarmins (IL-33, thymic stromal lymphopoietin [TSLP] and IL-25) were measured in a multicentre prospective RA cohort. ILD was classified using systematic medical record review. Cross-sectional associations of log-transformed (IL-33, TSLP) or quartile (IL-25) values with RA-ILD at enrolment (prevalent RA-ILD) were examined using logistic regression, while associations with incident RA-ILD developing after enrolment were examined using Cox proportional hazards. Covariates in multivariate models included age, sex, race, smoking status, RA disease activity score and anti-cyclic citrullinated antibody positivity., Results: Of 2835 study participants, 115 participants (4.1%) had prevalent RA-ILD at baseline and an additional 146 (5.1%) developed incident ILD. There were no associations between serum alarmin concentrations and prevalent ILD in unadjusted or adjusted logistic regression models. In contrast, there was a significant inverse association between IL-33 concentration and the risk of developing incident RA-ILD in unadjusted (hazard ratio [HR] 0.73 per log-fold increase; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.95; P = 0.018) and adjusted (HR 0.77; 95% CI: 0.59, 1.00; P = 0.047) models. No significant associations of TSLP or IL-25 with incident ILD were observed., Conclusion: In this study, we observed a significant inverse association between serum IL-33 concentration and the risk of developing incident RA-ILD, but no associations with prevalent ILD. Additional investigation is required to better understand the mechanisms driving this relationship and how serum alarmin IL-33 assessment might contribute to clinical risk stratification in patients with RA., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: To evaluate the associations of plasma matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) with prevalent and incident interstitial lung disease (ILD) in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)., Methods: Within a multicenter, prospective cohort of US veterans with RA, we performed a cross-sectional study of prevalent ILD and cohort study of incident ILD. ILD diagnoses were validated by medical record review of provider diagnoses and chest imaging and/or pathology reports. MMP-1, 3, 7, and 9 concentrations were measured in plasma samples, then standardized and categorized into quartiles. The associations of MMPs with prevalent and incident ILD were assessed with logistic (prevalent) and Cox (incident) regression models adjusted for RA-ILD risk factors., Results: Among 2,312 participants (88.9% male; mean age 63.8 years), 96 had prevalent ILD. Incident ILD developed in 130 participants over 17,378 person-years of follow-up (crude incidence rate 7.5/1,000 person-years). Participants with the highest quartile of MMP-7 concentrations had a nearly four-fold increased odds of prevalent ILD (adjusted odds ratio 3.78 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.86-7.65]) and over two-fold increased risk of incident ILD (adjusted hazard ratio 2.33 [95% CI 1.35-4.02]). Higher MMP-9 concentrations were also associated with prevalent and incident ILD, as well as negatively correlated with forced vital capacity among those with prevalent ILD (r = -0.30, P = 0.005)., Conclusion: MMP-7 and MMP-9 were strongly associated with both prevalent and incident ILD in this large, multicenter RA cohort after adjustment for other RA-ILD risk factors. These population-level findings further support a potential pathogenic role for MMPs in RA-ILD and suggest that their measurement could facilitate RA-ILD risk stratification., (© 2024 The Authors. Arthritis & Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: To identify factors associated with non-treatment with biologic and non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) during the 12 months after initial inflammatory arthritis (IA) diagnosis., Methods: We identified Veterans with incident IA diagnosed in 2007-2019. We assessed time to treatment with Kaplan-Meier curves. We identified associations between non-treatment and factors relating to patients, providers, and the health system with multivariate Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) log-Poisson. Subgroup analyses included IA subtypes (rheumatoid arthritis [RA], psoriatic arthritis [PsA], and ankylosing spondylitis [AS]) and timeframes of the initial IA diagnosis (2007-11, 2012-15, and 2016-19)., Results: Of 18,318 study patients, 40.7 % did not receive treatment within 12 months after diagnosis. In all patients, factors associated with non-treatment included Black race (hazard ratio, 95 % confidence interval: 1.13, 1.08-1.19), Hispanic ethnicity (1.14, 1.07-1.22), Charlson Comorbidity Index ≥2, (1.15, 1.11-1.20), and opiate use (1.09, 1.05-1.13). Factors associated with higher frequency of DMARD treatment included married status (0.86, 0.81-0.91); erosion in joint imaging report (HR: 0.86, 0.81-0.91); female diagnosing provider (0.90, CI: 0.85-0.96), gender concordance between patient and provider (0.91, CI: 0.86-0.97), and diagnosing provider specialty of rheumatology (0.53, CI: 0.49-0.56)., Conclusion: A high proportion of Veterans with IA were not treated with a biologic or non-biologic DMARD within one year after their initial diagnosis. A wide range of factors were associated with non-treatment of IA that may represent missed opportunities for improving the quality of care through early initiation of DMARDs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jessica Walsh reports financial support was provided by AbbVie Inc. Jodi Walker reports financial support was provided by AbbVie Inc. Kevin Douglas reports financial support was provided by AbbVie Inc. Jerry Clewell reports financial support was provided by AbbVie Inc. Jessica Walsh reports a relationship with Eli Lilly and Company, Janssen, UCB that includes: consulting or advisory., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the impact of emerging safety data on practice patterns by describing the characteristics of patients initiating and discontinuing advanced therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) before and after January 2021., Methods: This cohort study evaluated US veterans with RA between April 2019 and September 2022. This period was divided into two 664-day periods before and after January 2021. Eligible patients had ≥1 diagnosis code for RA and initiated a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi), non-TNFi biologic, or JAK inhibitor (JAKi). We tested for interaction within regression models to determine whether changes in patient characteristics for tofacitinib recipients were different from changes observed for other therapies. We also evaluated factors associated with therapy discontinuation in Cox models adjusted for age, sex, and duration on therapy, including assessment for effect modification., Results: When comparing patients with RA initiating tofacitinib before (n = 2,111) with those initiating tofacitinib after (n = 1,664) January 2021, there was a decrease in mean age (64.1 vs 63.0 years) and in the proportion with cardiovascular comorbidities (all P < 0.01). These changes were significantly different from those observed for patients initiating TNFi or non-TNFi biologics. Among active advanced therapy recipients, the likelihood of discontinuation was higher for tofacitinib than TNFi (hazard ratio 1.18, 95% confidence interval 1.10-1.26, P < 0.001). The higher rate of tofacitinib discontinuation was more pronounced in the presence of cardiovascular comorbidities (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Recent safety data significantly affected prescribing practices for advanced therapies, with a reduction in JAKi initiation and an increase in JAKi discontinuation among older patients and those at high cardiovascular risk., (© 2023 American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

John Robert Ward was one of the early academic rheumatologists in the United States. He was the founding father of rheumatology in the Intermountain West, the first Chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. Dr Ward became a national leader in the understanding and treatment of rheumatic disease. His foundational work established gold-standard techniques for the successful investigation of anti-rheumatic drugs. His leadership and scientific contributions clearly qualify him as a "giant in rheumatology.", (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Although clinical and genetic risk factors have been identified for rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD), there are no current tools allowing for risk stratification. We sought to develop and validate an ILD risk model in a large, multicentre, prospective RA cohort., Methods: Participants in the Veterans Affairs RA (VARA) registry were genotyped for 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. ILD was validated through systematic record review. A genetic risk score (GRS) was computed from minor alleles weighted by effect size with ILD, using backward selection. The GRS was combined with clinical risk factors within a logistic regression model. Internal validation was completed using bootstrapping, and model performance was assessed by the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC)., Results: Of 2,386 participants (89% male, mean age 69.5 years), 9.4% had ILD. Following backward selection, five SNPs contributed to the GRS. The GRS and clinical factors outperformed clinical factors alone in discriminating ILD (AUC 0.675 vs 0.635, p< 0.001). The shrinkage-corrected performance for combined and clinical-only models was 0.667 (95% CI 0.628, 0.712) and 0.623 (95% CI 0.584, 0.651), respectively. Twenty percent of the cohort had a combined risk score below a cut-point with >90% sensitivity., Conclusion: A clinical and genetic risk model discriminated ILD in a large, multicentre RA cohort better than a clinical-only model, excluding 20% of the cohort from low-yield testing. These results demonstrate the potential utility of a GRS in RA-ILD and support further investigation into individualized risk stratification and screening., (Published by Oxford University Press 2024.)

Purpose: To develop a natural language processing (NLP) tool to extract forced vital capacity (FVC) values from electronic health record (EHR) notes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD)., Methods: We selected RA-ILD patients (n = 7485) in the Veterans Health Administration (VA) between 2000 and 2020 using validated ICD-9/10 codes. We identified numeric values in proximity to FVC string patterns from clinical notes in the EHR. Subsequently, we performed processing steps to account for variability in note structure, related pulmonary function test (PFT) output, and values copied across notes, then assigned dates from linked administrative procedure records. NLP-derived FVC values were compared to values recorded directly from PFT equipment available on a subset of patients., Results: We identified 5911 FVC values (n = 1844 patients) from PFT equipment and 15 383 values (n = 4982 patients) by NLP. Among 2610 date-matched FVC values from NLP and PFT equipment, 95.8% of values were within 5% predicted. The mean (SD) difference was 0.09% (5.9), and values strongly correlated (r = 0.94, p < 0.001), with a precision of 0.87 (95% CI 0.86, 0.88). NLP captured more patients with longitudinal FVC values (n = 3069 vs. n = 1164). Mean (SD) change in FVC %-predicted per year was similar between sources (-1.5 [30.0] NLP vs. -0.9 [16.6] PFT equipment; standardized response mean = 0.05 for both)., Conclusions: NLP of EHR notes increases the capture of accurate, longitudinal FVC values by three-fold over PFT equipment. Use of this NLP tool can facilitate pharmacoepidemiologic research in RA-ILD and other lung diseases by capturing this critical measure of disease severity., (© 2023 The Authors. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: To update and validate the Rheumatic Disease Comorbidity Index (RDCI) utilizing International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes., Methods: We defined ICD-9-CM (n = 1,068) and ICD-10-CM (n = 1,425) era cohorts (n = 862 in both) spanning the ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM transition in a multicenter, prospective rheumatoid arthritis registry. Information regarding comorbidities was collected from linked administrative data over 2-year assessment periods. An ICD-10-CM code list was generated from crosswalks and clinical expertise. ICD-9- and ICD-10-derived RDCI scores were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). The predictive ability of the RDCI for functional status and death during follow-up was assessed using multivariable regression models and goodness-of-fit statistics (Akaike's information criterion [AIC] and quasi information criterion [QIC]) in both cohorts., Results: Mean ± SD RDCI scores were 2.93 ± 1.72 in the ICD-9-CM cohort and 2.92 ± 1.74 in the ICD-10-CM cohort. RDCI scores had substantial agreement in individuals who were in both cohorts (ICC 0.71 [95% confidence interval 0.68-0.74]). Prevalence of comorbidities was similar between cohorts with absolute differences <6%. Higher RDCI scores were associated with a greater risk of death and poorer functional status during follow-up in both cohorts. Similarly, in both cohorts, models including the RDCI score had the lowest QIC (functional status) and AIC (death) values, indicating better model performance., Conclusion: The newly proposed ICD-10-CM codes for the RDCI-generated comparable RDCI scores to those derived from ICD-9-CM codes and are highly predictive of functional status and death. The proposed ICD-10-CM codes for the RDCI can be used in rheumatic disease outcomes research spanning the ICD-10-CM era., (© 2023 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: To determine whether prescribing practices for Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi), tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), and non-TNFi biologic agents changed after the results of the Oral Rheumatoid Arthritis Trial (ORAL) Surveillance trial were released in January 2021., Methods: This is a retrospective study in adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving advanced therapies within the Veterans Affairs Health System from January 2012 through September 2022. Eligible patients were required to have at least one diagnosis code for RA and to have received a biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug or JAKi. Treatment courses were defined from pharmacy dispensing data and the number of new courses of each advanced therapy was quantified over time. We assessed changes in the use of each therapy before and after the release of safety data (January 2021)., Results: A total of 88,253 individual drug courses (in 34,656 unique patients) were included in the study. There was a consistent increase in the number and proportion of new courses of JAKi leading up to January 2021, which was followed by a significant net decrease in JAKi use through September 2022. There was significantly less tofacitinib use after the release of safety data, with a significant difference in the slope of change in use with time. In contrast, whereas TNFi use declined leading up to 2021, its use significantly increased after January 2021., Conclusion: Changes in prescribing in response to new evidence emphasize the impact that safety trials have on prescribing practices. Ongoing study in this area, with attention to specific patient characteristics and risk profiles, will help characterize these changes in practice., (© 2023 The Authors. ACR Open Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: In the Steroid EliMination In Rheumatoid Arthritis (SEMIRA) trial, 65% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in low disease activity (LDA) on stable biologic therapy successfully tapered glucocorticoids. We aimed to evaluate real-world rates of glucocorticoid tapering among similar patients in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis registry., Methods: Within a multicenter, prospective RA cohort, we used registry data and linked pharmacy claims from 2003 to 2021 to identify chronic prednisone users achieving LDA after initiating a new biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (b/tsDMARD). We defined the index date as first LDA occurring 60 to 180 days after b/tsDMARD initiation. The primary outcome of successful tapering, assessed at day 180 after LDA, required a 30-day averaged prednisone dose both less than or equal to 5mg/day and at least 50% lower than at the index date. The secondary outcome was discontinuation, defined as a prednisone dose of 0 mg/day at days 180 through 210. We used univariate statistics to compare patient characteristics by fulfillment of the primary outcome., Results: We evaluated 100 b/tsDMARD courses among 95 patients. Fifty-four courses resulted in successful tapering; 33 resulted in discontinuation. Positive rheumatoid factor, higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, more background DMARDs, shorter time from b/tsDMARD initiation to LDA, and higher glucocorticoid dose 30 days before LDA were associated with greater likelihood of successful tapering., Conclusion: In a real-world RA cohort of chronic glucocorticoid users in LDA, half successfully tapered and a third discontinued prednisone within 6 months of initiating a new b/tsDMARD. Claims-based algorithms of glucocorticoid tapering and discontinuation may be useful to evaluate predictors of tapering in administrative data sets., (© 2023 The Authors. ACR Open Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: To examine temporal trends in all-cause and cause-specific mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)., Methods: We conducted a matched cohort study in the VHA from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2017. Incident RA patients were matched up to 1:10 on age, sex, and VHA enrollment year to non-RA patients, then followed until death or end of study period. Cause of death was obtained from the National Death Index. Multivariable Cox regression models stratified by RA diagnosis years were used to examine trends in RA-related risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality., Results: Among 29,779 incident RA patients (matched to 245,226 non-RA patients), 9,565 deaths occurred. RA patients were at increased risk of all-cause (adjusted hazard ratio [HR adj ] 1.23 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.20-1.26]), cardiovascular (HR adj 1.19 [95% CI 1.14-1.23]), cancer (HR adj 1.19 [95% CI 1.14-1.24]), respiratory (HR adj 1.46 [95% CI 1.38-1.55]), and infection-related mortality (HR adj 1.59 [95% CI 1.41-1.80]). Interstitial lung disease was the cause of death most strongly associated with RA (HR adj 3.39 [95% CI 2.88-3.99]). Nearly 70% of excess deaths in RA were attributable to cardiopulmonary disease. All-cause mortality risk related to RA was lower among those diagnosed during 2012-2017 (HR adj 1.10 [95% CI 1.05-1.15]) compared to 2000-2005 (HR adj 1.31 [95% CI 1.26-1.36]), but still higher than for non-RA controls (P < 0.001). Cause-specific mortality trends were similar., Conclusion: Excess RA-related mortality was driven by cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, and infectious causes, particularly cardiopulmonary diseases. Although our findings support that RA-related mortality risk is decreasing over time, a mortality gap remains for all-cause and cause-specific mortality in RA., (© 2022 American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Importance: Although an increased risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease has been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the risk of aortic stenosis (AS) is unknown., Objective: To examine the risk of incident AS, aortic valve intervention, AS-related death, and risk factors for AS development in patients with RA., Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study linked data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from 2000 to 2019. Patients with RA were matched by age, sex, and VHA enrollment year with up to 10 patients without RA. The cohort was followed until incident AS, aortic valve intervention, or death. Data were analyzed from August 23, 2022, to March 3, 2023., Exposures: the primary exposure was the presence of RA, defined using validated RA algorithms., Main Outcomes and Measures: Aortic stenosis was defined as a composite of inpatient or outpatient diagnoses, surgical or transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or AS-related death using diagnostic and procedural codes. Risk of AS development was assessed with multivariable Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for race, ethnicity, smoking status, body mass index, rurality, comorbidities, and health care use., Results: The cohort included 73 070 patients with RA (64 008 [87.6%] males; mean [SD] age, 63.0 [11.9] years) matched with 639 268 patients without RA (554 182 [86.7%] males; mean [SD] age, 61.9 [11.7] years) and 16 109 composite AS outcomes that occurred over 6 223 150 person-years. The AS incidence rate was 3.97 (95% CI, 3.81-4.13) per 1000 person-years in patients with RA and 2.45 (95% CI, 2.41-2.49) per 1000 person-years in the control patients (absolute difference, 1.52 per 1000 person-years). Rheumatoid arthritis was associated with an increased risk of composite AS (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], 1.48; 95% CI, 1.41-1.55), aortic valve intervention (AHR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.22-1.48), and AS-related death (AHR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.04-1.54)., Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, RA was associated with a higher risk of developing AS and the subsequent risks of undergoing aortic valve intervention and suffering from AS-related death. Future studies are needed to confirm whether valvular heart disease, specifically AS, may be an overlooked cardiovascular disease complication in RA.

Objective: To determine whether unique multimorbidity patterns are associated with long-term rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease severity., Methods: We conducted a cohort study within the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis registry. We applied previously derived multimorbidity patterns based on the presence of diagnostic codes for relevant conditions prior to enrollment using linked administrative data. Disease activity and functional status were assessed longitudinally up to 5 years after enrollment. The association of multimorbidity patterns with disease activity and functional status were assessed using generalized estimating equations models adjusting for relevant confounders., Results: We studied 2,956 participants, of which 88.2% were male, 76.9% reported white race, and 79.3% had a smoking history. Mental health and substance abuse (β 0.12 [95% confidence interval {CI} 0.00, 0.23]), cardiovascular (β 0.25 [95% CI 0.12, 0.38]), and chronic pain (β 0.21 [95% CI 0.11, 0.31]) multimorbidity were associated with higher Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28) scores. Mental health and substance abuse (β 0.09 [0.03, 0.15]), cardiovascular (β 0.11 [95% CI 0.04, 0.17]), and chronic pain multimorbidity (β 0.15 [95% CI 0.10, 0.20]) were also associated with higher Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ) scores. The metabolic pattern of multimorbidity was not associated with DAS28 or MDHAQ. The number of multimorbidity patterns present was highly associated with DAS28 and MDHAQ (P trend < 0.001), and patients with all four multimorbidity patterns had the highest DAS28 (β 0.59 [95% CI 0.36, 0.83]) and MDHAQ (β 0.27 [95% CI 0.16, 0.39]) scores., Conclusion: Mental health and substance abuse, chronic pain, and cardiovascular multimorbidity patterns are associated with increased RA disease activity and poorer functional status. Identifying and addressing these multimorbidity patterns may facilitate achieving RA treatment targets., (© 2023 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objectives: Algorithms have been developed to identify rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) in administrative data with positive predictive values (PPVs) between 70 and 80%. We hypothesized that including ILD-related terms identified within chest computed tomography (CT) reports through text mining would improve the PPV of these algorithms in this cross-sectional study., Methods: We identified a derivation cohort of possible RA-ILD cases (n = 114) using electronic health record data from a large academic medical center and performed medical record review to validate diagnoses (reference standard). ILD-related terms (e.g., ground glass, honeycomb) were identified in chest CT reports by natural language processing. Administrative algorithms including diagnostic and procedural codes as well as specialty were applied to the cohort both with and without the requirement for ILD-related terms from CT reports. We subsequently analyzed similar algorithms in an external validation cohort of 536 participants with RA., Results: The addition of ILD-related terms to RA-ILD administrative algorithms increased the PPV in both the derivation (improvement ranging from 3.6 to 11.7%) and validation cohorts (improvement 6.0 to 21.1%). This increase was greatest for less stringent algorithms. Administrative algorithms including ILD-related terms from CT reports exceeded a PPV of 90% (maximum 94.6% derivation cohort). Increases in PPV were accompanied by a decline in sensitivity (validation cohort -3.9 to -19.5%)., Conclusions: The addition of ILD-related terms identified by text mining from chest CT reports led to improvements in the PPV of RA-ILD algorithms. With high PPVs, use of these algorithms in large data sets could facilitate epidemiologic and comparative effectiveness research in RA-ILD., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased risk of select cancers, including lymphoma and lung cancer. Whether RA influences prostate cancer risk is uncertain. We aimed to determine the risk of prostate cancer in patients with RA compared to patients without RA in the Veterans Health Administration (VA)., Methods: We performed a matched (up to 1:5) cohort study of male patients with and without RA in the VA from 2000 to 2018. RA status, as well as covariates, were obtained from national VA databases. Prostate cancer was identified through linked VA cancer databases and the National Death Index. Multivariable Cox models compared prostate cancer risk between patients with RA and patients without RA, including models that accounted for retention in the VA system., Results: We included 56,514 veterans with RA and 227,284 veterans without RA. During 2,337,104 patient-years of follow-up, 6,550 prostate cancers occurred. Prostate cancer incidence (per 1,000 patient-years) was 3.50 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 3.32-3.69) in patients with RA and 2.66 (95% CI 2.58-2.73) in patients without RA. After accounting for confounders and censoring for attrition of VA health care, RA was modestly associated with a higher prostate cancer risk (adjusted HR [HR adj ] 1.12 [95% CI 1.04-1.20]). There was no association between RA and prostate cancer mortality (HR adj 0.92 [95% CI 0.73-1.16])., Conclusion: RA was associated with a modestly increased risk of prostate cancer, but not prostate cancer mortality, after accounting for relevant confounders and several potential sources of bias. However, even minimal unmeasured confounding could explain these findings., (© 2022 American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: MUC5B and TOLLIP single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and cigarette smoking were associated with rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) in a predominantly Northern European population. We evaluated whether RA-ILD is associated with these genetic variants and HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles in a large RA cohort stratified by race and smoking history., Methods: HLA-DRB1 SE alleles and MUC5B rs35705950 and TOLLIP rs5743890 SNPs were genotyped in U.S. veterans with RA. ILD was validated through medical record review. Genetic associations with ILD were assessed in logistic regression models overall and in subgroups defined by race and smoking status, with additive interactions assessed by the relative excess risk of interaction (RERI)., Results: Of 2,556 participants (88% male, 77% White), 238 (9.3%) had ILD. The MUC5B variant was associated with ILD (OR 2.25 [95% CI 1.69, 3.02]), whereas TOLLIP and HLA-DRB1 SE were not. The MUC5B variant was less frequent among Black/African American participants (5.8% vs. 22.6%), though its association with RA-ILD was numerically stronger (OR 4.23 [1.65, 10.86]) compared to all other participants (OR 2.32 [1.70, 3.16]). Those with the MUC5B variant and a smoking history had numerically higher odds of ILD (OR 4.18 [2.53, 6.93]) than non-smokers (OR 2.41 [1.16, 5.04]). Additive interactions between MUC5B-race and MUC5B-smoking were not statistically significant., Conclusion: In this large RA cohort, the MUC5B promoter variant was associated with >2-fold higher odds of RA-ILD. While this variant is less common among Black/African American patients, its presence in this population carried >4-fold higher odds of RA-ILD., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The US Department of Veterans Affairs has created a portfolio of educational programs to train primary care providers (PCPs) in the evaluation and management of common musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. Appropriate resource utilization for evaluation of knee pain, including limiting unnecessary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, is an important theme of these initiatives. The objective of this study was to report the utilization of knee MRI by PCP providers before and after the MSK education program and to determine the appropriateness of these MRI orders., Methods: Twenty-six PCPs participated in the MSK Mini-Residency educational program held in Salt Lake City between April 2012 and October 2014. Knee MRI orders submitted by these providers 12 months before and 12 months after their participation were reviewed. Magnetic resonance imaging orders were categorized as "inappropriate," "probably inappropriate," or "possibly appropriate," based on accepted guidelines for knee MRI utilization. Differences in the numbers of precourse and postcourse MRI orders for each of these categories were compared using Student t test., Results: Following our program, MRI orders decreased from 130 (precourse) to 93 (postcourse), a reduction of 28% ( p = 0.04). This reduction was observed entirely within the "inappropriate" and "probably inappropriate" categories; the number of orders categorized as "possibly appropriate" increased, but not significantly., Conclusions: The MSK Mini-Residency training program was a successful educational intervention and was associated with a reduction in inappropriate knee MRI utilization for some participants, while keeping appropriate MRI utilization stable., (Copyright © 2022 Written work prepared by employees of the Federal Government as part of their official duties is, under the U.S. Copyright Act, a “work of the United States Government” for which copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code is not available. As such, copyright does not extend to the contributions of employees of the Federal Government.)

Background: The relative efficacy and safety of allopurinol and febuxostat when used according to current guidelines for the treatment of hyperuricemia are unknown. This double-blind noninferiority trial examined these issues., Methods: Participants with gout and hyperuricemia (with at least 33% having stage 3 chronic kidney disease) were randomly assigned to allopurinol or febuxostat in this 72-week trial, with doses titrated to target serum urate. The trial had three phases: titration (weeks 0 to 24), maintenance (weeks 25 to 48), and observation (weeks 49 to 72). Allopurinol and febuxostat were initiated at daily doses of 100 and 40 mg, with maximum titration to 800 and 120 mg, respectively. Antiinflammatory prophylaxis was given during phases 1 and 2. The primary end point was the proportion of patients experiencing one or more flares during phase 3, with a prespecified noninferiority margin of less than 8 percentage points between allopurinol and febuxostat. Secondary end points included efficacy in patients with chronic kidney disease, proportion achieving target serum urate levels, and serious adverse events., Results: This study included 940 participants; 20.1% withdrew, with similar proportions in treatment arms. During phase 3, 36.5% of allopurinol-treated participants had one flare or more compared with 43.5% of febuxostat-treated participants (P<0.001 for noninferiority). Overall, 80% of participants achieved mean target urates during phase 2 with no differences by treatment. There were no treatment differences (including cardiovascular events) in serious adverse events., Conclusions: Allopurinol and febuxostat achieved serum urate goals in patients with gout; allopurinol was noninferior to febuxostat in controlling flares. Similar outcomes were noted in participants with stage 3 chronic kidney disease. (Funded by the Cooperative Studies Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT02579096.).

Objectives: We aimed to assess whether serum cytokine/chemokine concentrations predict incident cancer in RA patients., Methods: Data from cancer-free enrollees in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) Registry were linked to a national VA oncology database and the National Death Index (NDI) to identify incident cancers. Seventeen serum cytokines/chemokines were measured from enrollment serum and an overall weighted cytokine/chemokine score (CK score) was calculated. Associations of cytokines/chemokines with all-site, lung, and lymphoproliferative cancers were assessed in Cox regression models accounting for relevant covariates including age, sex, RA disease activity, and smoking., Results: In 1216 patients, 146 incident cancers (42 lung and 23 lymphoproliferative cancers) occurred over 10,072 patient-years of follow-up with a median time of 4.6 years from enrollment (cytokine/chemokine measurement) to cancer incidence. In fully adjusted models, CK score was associated with a higher risk of all-site (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.01-1.71, p < 0.001), lung (aHR 1.81, 1.40-2.34, p = 0.001), and lung/lymphoproliferative (aHR 1.54 [1.35-1.75], p < 0.001) cancer. The highest quartile of CK score was associated with a higher risk of all-site (aHR 1.91, 0.96-3.81, p = 0.07; p-trend = 0.005), lung (aHR 8.18, 1.63-41.23, p = 0.01; p-trend < 0.001), and lung/lymphoproliferative (aHR 4.56 [1.84-11.31], p = 0.001; p-trend < 0.001) cancer. Thirteen of 17 individual analytes were associated with incident cancer risk., Conclusion: Elevated cytokine/chemokine concentrations are predictive of future cancer in RA patients, particularly lung and lymphoproliferative cancers. These results suggest that the measurement of circulating cytokines/chemokines could be informative in cancer risk stratification and could provide insight into future cancer prevention strategies in RA, and possibly individuals without RA., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: To examine the impact of major therapeutic change (MTC) on clinical response across a broad range of disease activity in US veterans with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)., Methods: This historical cohort analysis evaluated patient visits from the Veterans Affairs RA registry between January 1, 2006 and September 30, 2017. Eligible patient visits were a rheumatology visit with 3 disease activity measures, including the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints, the Clinical Disease Activity Index, and the Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3; the follow-up visit for all 3 disease activity measures was 2-6 months later. The full population and a subset of patients with active disease (≥6 tender joints, ≥6 swollen joints) were evaluated. Clinical outcome was based on the American College of Rheumatology criteria for 20% improvement in disease activity (ACR20). The effect of MTC on ACR20 response was presented as crude descriptive statistics and evaluated using standardized regression for population- and disease activity-level conditional effects., Results: The full population comprised 1,208 patients (6,138 visits) and the active disease subpopulation included 383 patients (1,109 visits). Overall, visits with MTC were associated with increased likelihood of ACR20 response across all disease activity measures for the full population. Risk ratios for overall risk of ACR20 response for visits with MTC versus those without MTC ranged from 1.67 to 2.22 across disease activity measures among the full population and from 1.51 to 1.60 for the subpopulation with active disease., Conclusion: MTC was associated with clinical improvement, even among patients with longstanding RA who had received multiple prior therapies, which emphasizes the utility of therapy modifications for patients with established and active RA., (© 2020, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: To determine the association of inhalant exposures with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related autoantibodies and severity in US veterans., Methods: Participants in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry were mailed surveys assessing occupational, agricultural, and military inhalant exposures. Demographic characteristics, disease activity, functional status, and extraarticular features were obtained from the VARA registry, while HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) status, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies, and rheumatoid factor (RF) were measured using banked DNA/serum from enrollment. Associations between inhalant exposures and RA-related factors (autoantibodies, severity, and extraarticular features) were assessed using multivariable linear and logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, race, and tobacco use and stratified by SE status. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated., Results: Questionnaires were returned by 797 of 1,566 participants (50.9%). Survey respondents were older, more often White or male, and less frequently smokers, and had lower disease activity compared to nonrespondents. Anti-CCP positivity was more common among veterans exposed to burn pits (OR 1.66 [95% CI 1.02, 2.69]) and military waste disposal (OR 1.74 [95% CI 1.04, 2.93]) independent of other factors. Among participants who were positive for SE alleles, burn pit exposure (OR 5.69 [95% CI 2.73, 11.87]) and military waste disposal exposure (OR 5.05 [95% CI 2.42, 10.54]) were numerically more strongly associated with anti-CCP positivity. Several inhalant exposures were associated with the presence of chronic lung disease, but not with the presence of RF or the level of disease activity., Conclusion: Military burn pit exposure and military waste disposal exposure were independently associated with the presence of anti-CCP antibodies in RA patients. These findings are consistent with emerging evidence that various inhalant exposures influence autoantibody expression and RA risk., (© 2020, American College of Rheumatology.)

Background: A previous analysis of the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry showed that more than half of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) did not receive a major therapeutic change (MTC) despite moderate or severe disease activity. We aimed to empirically determine disease activity thresholds associated with a decision by rheumatologists and nurse practitioners to institute a MTC in patients with RA and to report the impact of that change on RA disease activity., Methods: We analyzed data from the VARA registry between January 1, 2006, and September 30, 2017. Eligible patients had a visit with 3 disease activity measures (DAMs) recorded: Disease Activity Score for 28 joints (DAS28), Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), and Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3). The Youden Index was used to identify disease activity thresholds that best discriminated rheumatologist/nurse practitioner decision to initiate MTC. Clinical outcome was 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR20 response). The effect of MTC on ACR20 response was presented as crude descriptive statistics and evaluated using G-computation for marginal and conditional effects with established disease activity level combined with an empirical threshold from Youden analysis., Results: The study population comprised 1776 patients (12,094 visits: 3077 with MTC, 9017 without MTC). Empirical thresholds (95% bootstrap confidence interval with 1000 replications) for MTC were 4.03 (3.70-4.36) for DAS28, 12.9 (10.4-15.4) for CDAI, and 3.81 (3.32-4.30) for RAPID3. Visits with MTC had increased likelihood of ACR20 response: risk ratios for ACR20 response for visits with MTC vs without MTC ranged 1.2-2.6 across DAMs; risk differences ranged 0.2-14.5%., Conclusions: MTC was associated with clinical improvement across all DAMs with the greatest change in patients with RA disease activity above the Youden threshold identified in this work., Trial Registration: VARA Registry, https://www.hsrd., Research: va.gov/research/abstracts.cfm?Project&#95;ID=2141698764.

Objective: To determine the performance of administrative-based algorithms for classifying interstitial lung disease (ILD) complicating rheumatoid arthritis (RA)., Methods: Participants in a large, multicenter RA registry were screened for ILD using codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) and the ICD-10. Medical record review confirmed ILD among participants screening positive and a random sample of those screening negative. ICD and procedure codes, provider specialty, and dates were extracted from Veterans Affairs administrative data to construct ILD algorithms. Performance of these algorithms against medical record review was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value, and kappa using inverse probability weighting to account for sampling methods., Results: Medical records of 536 RA patients were reviewed, confirming 182 (stringent definition) and 203 (relaxed definition) cases of ILD. Initially, we identified ≥2 ICD codes from inpatient or outpatient encounters as optimal discriminating factors (specificity 96.0%, PPV 65.5%; κ = 0.70). Subsequently, we constructed a set of ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes that improved algorithm specificity (specificity 96.8%, PPV 69.5%; κ = 0.72). Algorithms that included a pulmonologist diagnosis or chest computed tomography plus pulmonary function testing or lung biopsy had improved performance (specificity 98.0%, PPV 77.4%; κ = 0.75). PPV increased with exclusion of other ILD causes (78.5%) in comparison with the relaxed ILD definition (82.4%) and in sensitivity analyses (83.4-86.3%). Gains in specificity and PPV with greater algorithm requirements were accompanied by declines in sensitivity., Conclusion: Administrative algorithms with optimal combinations of ICD codes, provider specialty, diagnostic testing, and exclusion of other ILD causes accurately classify ILD in RA., (© 2019, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Although hyperuricemia and gout can complicate the course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the impact of these factors on outcomes in RA is unclear. We undertook this study to examine associations of coexistent hyperuricemia and gout with RA disease measures, RA treatments, and survival., Methods: Participants from a longitudinal RA study were categorized by the presence of gout and serum urate (UA) status. Groups were compared by baseline patient characteristics, RA disease activity, treatments, and comorbidities. Associations of baseline serum UA levels with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality were examined in multivariable survival analyses., Results: Of 1,999 participants with RA, 341 (17%) had serum UA concentrations of >6.8 mg/dl, and 121 (6.1%) were diagnosed with gout. There were no significant associations of serum UA concentration or gout with RA disease activity or treatment at enrollment, with the exception that those with gout were more likely to be receiving sulfasalazine and less likely to be receiving nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. After adjustments for age and sex, moderate hyperuricemia (serum UA >6.8 to ≤8 mg/dl) was associated with an increased risk of CVD-related mortality (hazard ratio 1.56 [95% confidence interval 1.11-2.21]). This association was attenuated and not significant following additional adjustment for comorbidities that more commonly accompany hyperuricemia. Results corresponding with serum UA concentrations of >8.0 mg/dl were similar, although not reaching statistical significance in any model. There were no associations of baseline serum UA concentration with all-cause mortality., Conclusion: Our study reports the frequency of hyperuricemia and gout in patients with RA. These results demonstrate strong associations of hyperuricemia with CVD mortality in this population, a risk that appears to be driven by excess comorbidity., (© 2019, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: In rheumatoid arthritis, whether women are less likely to achieve low disease activity is unclear. We evaluated sex differences in remission and low disease activity, comparing different clinical and imaging measures., Methods: We used data from the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry and from 2 clinical trials. Remission and low disease activity were defined using composite scores, individual items (tender joints, swollen joints, erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR], C-reactive protein [CRP] level, and evaluator/patient global assessment), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the VARA registry, we assessed the likelihood of point remission at any time during follow-up using logistic regression, and time to sustained remission (2 consecutive visits) using Cox proportional hazards models. In the clinical trials, logistic regression models evaluated the likelihood of low clinical and MRI activity at 52 weeks., Results: Among 2,463 patients in VARA, women (10.2%) were less likely to be in Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28)-ESR remission in follow-up (odds ratio [OR] 0.71 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.55-0.91]; P < 0.01) and had a longer time to sustained DAS28-ESR remission. This difference was not observed for DAS28-CRP, Clinical Disease Activity Index, or Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3. Women were more likely to achieve favorable individual components except for an ESR <30 mm/hour (OR 0.72 [95% CI 0.57-0.90]; P < 0.01). Among 353 trial participants (83.7% women), women had reduced rates of DAS28-ESR remission (OR 0.39 [95% CI 0.21-0.72]; P = 0.003) but similar rates of low MRI synovitis and osteitis., Conclusion: The comparison of remission rates between men and women varies based on the disease activity measure, with sex-specific differences in ESR resulting in reliably lower rates of remission among women. There were no differences in MRI measures., (© 2019 American College of Rheumatology. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Objective: Observational axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) research in large datasets has been limited by a lack of adequate methods for identifying patients with axSpA, because there are no billing codes in the United States for most subtypes of axSpA. The objective of this study was to develop methods to accurately identify patients with axSpA in a large dataset., Methods: The study population included 600 chart-reviewed veterans, with and without axSpA, in the Veterans Health Administration between January 1, 2005, and June 30, 2015. AxSpA identification algorithms were developed with variables anticipated by clinical experts to be predictive of an axSpA diagnosis [demographics, billing codes, healthcare use, medications, laboratory results, and natural language processing (NLP) for key SpA features]. Random Forest and 5-fold cross validation were used for algorithm development and testing in the training subset (n = 451). The algorithms were additionally tested in an independent testing subset (n = 149)., Results: Three algorithms were developed: Full algorithm, High Feasibility algorithm, and Spond NLP algorithm. In the testing subset, the areas under the curve with the receiver-operating characteristic analysis were 0.96, 0.94, and 0.86, for the Full algorithm, High Feasibility algorithm, and Spond NLP algorithm, respectively. Algorithm sensitivities ranged from 85.0% to 95.0%, specificities from 78.0% to 93.6%, and accuracies from 82.6% to 91.3%., Conclusion: Novel axSpA identification algorithms performed well in classifying patients with axSpA. These algorithms offer a range of performance and feasibility attributes that may be appropriate for a broad array of axSpA studies. Additional research is required to validate the algorithms in other cohorts.

Background: Delays in treatment for inflammatory arthritis (IA) are associated with unfavorable outcomes, including impaired quality of life, irreversible joint damage, and disability., Objective: To characterize treatment initiation patterns in veterans with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), or ankylosing spondylitis (AS)., Methods: ICD-9/10-CM codes and natural language processing were used to identify incident cases of RA, PsA, or AS between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2015, in patients enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration. Patterns of treatment initiation and nontreatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were assessed in the 12-month follow-up period after the incident diagnosis. Outcomes included the percentage of veterans treated with a DMARD, the mean time to the initial DMARD after diagnosis, and the percentage of veterans who accessed rheumatology care before DMARD initiation. To assess outcomes over time, veterans were grouped by year of initial IA diagnosis. Additionally, outcomes were compared between nonbiologic and biologic DMARDs and among IA subtypes (RA, PsA, and AS). Groups were statistically compared with 95% confidence intervals., Results: The population consisted of 12,118 IA veterans (9,711 RA, 1,472 PsA, and 935 AS), with 91.3% males and a mean age of 63.7 years. The percentage of veterans treated with ≥ 1 DMARD (nonbiologic or biologic) during the 12-month follow-up period increased from 48.8% in 2007 to 66.4% in 2015. In veterans diagnosed with IA in 2015, DMARD treatment was more common for PsA patients (72.9%) and RA patients (68.6%) than for AS patients (28.9%). In the subset treated with a DMARD within 12 months after diagnosis, the mean time to the initial DMARD after diagnosis did not change throughout the observation period (35.5 days for RA, 43.9 days for PsA, and 59.5 days for AS). Rheumatology specialty care was accessed by 87.4% of veterans treated with a nonbiologic DMARD and 92.2% of veterans treated with a biologic DMARD, in patients diagnosed in 2015., Conclusions: DMARD treatment rates during the initial 12 months after diagnosis increased between 2007 and 2015, but nontreatment remained common, particularly in veterans with AS. The time to treatment after diagnosis was stable over time; it was shortest for RA, intermediate for PsA, and longest for AS. DMARD treatment was uncommon in veterans who did not access rheumatology specialty care., Disclosures: AbbVie Pharmaceuticals and Marriott Daughters Foundation funded this study via investigator-initiated grants. Data analyses were completed by investigators independent of AbbVie and Marriott Daughters Foundation. Walker, Clewell, and Douglas are employed by, and stockholders in, Abbvie. Halwani reports grants from BMS, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Seattle Genetics, Roche-Genentech, Miragen, Immunedesign, Takeda, Amgen, Pharmacyclics, and Abbvie. The other authors have nothing to disclose.

Objective: The accurate and efficient collection and documentation of disease activity measures (DAMs) is critical to improve clinical care and outcomes research in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study evaluated the performance of an automated process to extract DAMs from medical notes in the electronic health record (EHR)., Methods: An automated text processing system was developed to extract the Disease Activity Score for 28 joints (DAS28) and its clinical and laboratory elements from the Veterans Affairs EHR for patients enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry. After automated text processing derivation, data accuracy was assessed by comparing the automated text processing system and manual extraction with gold standard chart review in a separate validation phase., Results: In the validation phase, 1569 notes from 596 patients at 3 sites were evaluated, with 75 (6%) notes detected only by automated text processing, 85 (5%) detected only by manual extraction, and 1408 (90%) detected by both methods. The accuracy of automated text processing ranged from 90.7% to 96.7% and the accuracy of manual extraction ranged from 91.3% to 95.0% for the different clinical and laboratory elements. The accuracy of the two methods to calculate the DAS28 was 78.1% for automated text processing and 78.3% for manual extraction., Conclusion: The automated text processing approach is highly efficient and performed as well as the manual extraction approach. This advance has the potential for significant improvements in the collection, documentation, and extraction of these data to support clinical practice and outcomes research relevant to RA as well as the potential for broader application to other health conditions., (Published 2019. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. ACR Open Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Combination treatments for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) alone include the addition of a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) or the addition of sulfasalazine (SSZ) and hydroxychloroquine to MTX (triple therapy). We compared persistence and adherence rates between these 2 combination therapies in US veterans and report the reasons for discontinuation of combination treatment in these groups., Methods: Using Veteran's Affairs clinical and administrative data from 2006 to 2012, veterans with RA escalating treatment from MTX to MTX-TNFi or triple therapy were examined for a 12-month period after combination initiation. Persistence was defined as treatment without a ≥90-day gap in therapy. Adherence was calculated using the proportion of days covered ≥80% at 12 months. Matching weights-adjusted models were applied to more closely mimic randomization in this study. The reasons that patients discontinued their combination regimens were identified by chart abstraction., Results: Full persistence at 1 year was 45% in the MTX-TNFi patients (n = 2,125) and 18% in the triple therapy patients (n = 171) (P < 0.001). Adherence was higher for the MTX-TNFi group (26%) than the triple therapy group (11%) (P < 0.0001). The triple therapy group was associated with significantly more treatment discontinuation, which was most often due to adverse drug events from SSZ., Conclusion: Differences in persistence and adherence between the MTX-TNFi and triple therapy groups appear to be primarily related to adverse drug events that were most often attributed to SSZ., (© 2018, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is identified as a risk factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), associations of PTSD with disease progression are less clear. To explore whether PTSD might influence disease-related measures of systemic inflammation in RA, we compared serum cytokine/chemokine (cytokine) concentrations in RA patients with and without PTSD., Methods: Participants were U.S. Veterans with RA and were categorized as having PTSD, other forms of depression/anxiety, or neither based on administrative diagnostic codes. Multiplex cytokines were measured using banked serum. Associations of PTSD with cytokine parameters (including a weighted cytokine score) were assessed using multivariable regression, stratified by anti-CCP status and adjusted for age, sex, race, and smoking status., Results: Among 1,460 RA subjects with mean (SD) age of 64 (11) years and disease duration of 11 (11) years, 91% were male, 77% anti-CCP positive, and 80% ever smokers. Of these, 11.6% had PTSD, 23.7% other depression/anxiety, and 64.7% had neither. PTSD, but not depression/anxiety, was associated with a higher cytokine score and number of high-concentration analytes in adjusted models, though this was limited to anti-CCP positive subjects. PTSD was associated with heightened expression of several individual cytokines including IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, IFN-γ, GM-CSF, MCP-1, and TNF-α., Conclusion: Anti-CCP positive RA patients with PTSD have higher serum cytokine concentrations than those without PTSD, demonstrating that systemic inflammation characteristic of RA is heightened in the context of this relatively common psychiatric comorbidity., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To examine factors associated with major therapeutic changes (MTC) among US Veterans with moderate/severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based on Disease Activity Score based on 28 joints (DAS28)., Methods: We used data from patients enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry from 1/1/2006 through 12/31/2014. The index date was a clinic visit with DAS28 >3.2 (moderate/severe disease) following an 18-month pre-index period that included ≥2 DAS28 measurements ≥60 days apart. The patients were followed for MTC from 7 days pre-index through 90 days post-index. Poisson multivariable regression models were used to identify associations with MTC. Chart review of a subset of randomly selected patients explored factors that impacted therapeutic decisions., Results: Among 941 patients, 396 (42.1%) had MTC. Of these, 369 (39.2%) patients had worsening DAS28 at index, 118 (12.5%) had DAS28 improvements, and 454 (48.2%) patients had no change in DAS28 versus pre-index DAS28. Of the patients with worsening DAS28, no change in DAS28, and improved DAS28, respectively, 50.5%, 62.6%, and 70.3% had no MTC. Regression analyses showed index DAS28, oral steroid or non-biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (nbDMARD) use in the previous year were associated with an increased likelihood of MTC; use of nbDMARDs in the previous 90 days was associated with a decreased likelihood of MTC. The most common reason for not modifying therapy despite DAS28 >3.2 was a judgement of mild disease., Conclusions: Clinicians frequently do not institute major therapeutic changes despite DAS28 indicating moderate/severe disease activity; multiple factors are involved in real-world treatment decisions.

Objective: To evaluate associations of HLA-DRB1 haplotypes and shared epitope (SE) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) severity and all-cause mortality in RA., Methods: Patients with RA from the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry were followed from enrollment until death or December 31, 2013. Clinical characteristics, DNA, and serum were collected at enrollment. Radiographic damage, the presence or absence of subcutaneous nodules, disease activity measures, and functional status were assessed at enrollment and updated during followup. Sixteen HLA-DRB1 haplotypes and SE status were determined from banked DNA. Associations between HLA-DRB1 haplotypes, RA disease characteristics, and mortality were assessed in multivariable regression models., Results: Within VARA, 1443 participants had genotyping and accrued 6150 patient-years of followup. Haplotypes VKA, VRA, LRA, SRA, SRE, SKR, and SEA, and SE alleles were significantly associated with seropositivity for rheumatoid factor (RF) and/or anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP). Haplotypes VKA and SKR were associated with higher RF concentrations, while VRA, DRE, and GRQ were associated with lower RF concentrations. Haplotypes VKA, VRA, and LRA were associated with higher concentrations of anti-CCP antibody, while haplotypes SRA, SRE, LEA, SKR, and SEA were significantly associated with lower anti-CCP concentrations. Haplotype VKA (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.08-1.80) was associated with increased frequency of radiographic damage at enrollment but none of the haplotypes were associated with the presence of subcutaneous nodules. Haplotypes SKA (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.26-1.83) was associated with higher mortality., Conclusion: HLA-DRB1 haplotypes are independently and variably associated with seropositivity, autoantibody concentrations, and outcomes in RA.

Background: Osteoporosis is inadequately treated in primary care settings. Under-recognition of the condition among male Veterans may contribute to this problem. In order to improve understanding of bone health in older male patients, we developed the "Musculoskeletal (MSK) Education Week", a multidisciplinary clinical training initiative within a primary care ambulatory rotation for internal medicine (IM) residents at the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of this program on trainees' recognition of osteoporosis or treatment of this condition following the training experience., Methods: We examined several clinical behaviors of post-graduate year 1 (PGY-1) IM trainees following their participation in the MSK Education Week between July 1-April 30, 2014. To determine the prevalence of these clinical behaviors, we conducted an observational study of patients age 50 and older enrolled at the Salt Lake City VA Healthcare System from July 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014. We used time-dependent multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate the impact of the training program on 4 osteoporosis-related outcomes: (1) completion of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan, (2) diagnosis of osteopenia, (3) diagnosis of osteoporosis, and (4) initiation of osteoporosis medications., Results: Twenty-six PGY-1 IM residents participated in the MSK Education Week, and 43,678 Veterans were identified over these periods of observation. In the Veterans cohort, 1154 had an encounter with a provider who had completed the training (and were therefore "exposed" to the training) and 42,524 Veterans did not. After adjusting for confounders, the effect of the provider training program was significant for DXA (HR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.11, 2.87), osteoporosis diagnosis (HR = 3.90, 95% CI: 2.09, 7.29), and initiation of medications (HR = 2.87, 95% CI: 2.02, 4.09) outcomes., Conclusions: We have shown that IM residents' participation in the MSK Education Week was associated with significantly improvements in their completion of DXA scans, diagnosis of osteoporosis, and initiation of fracture-reducing medications in a population of US Veterans. Long-term follow up is needed to determine whether these initial results are followed by actual reductions in osteoporotic fractures.

Objectives: The aim was to estimate the impact of TNF inhibitor (TNFi) exposure on radiographic disease progression in US Veterans with RA during the first year after initiating therapy., Methods: This historical longitudinal cohort design used clinical and claims data to evaluate radiographic progression after initiation of TNFi. US Veterans with RA initiating TNFi treatment (index date), ≥ 6 months pre-index and ≥ 12 months post-index VA enrolment/activity, and initial (6 months pre-index to 30 days post-index) and follow-up (10-18 months post-index) bilateral hand radiographs were eligible. The cumulative TNFi exposure and change in modified Sharp score (MSS) between initial and follow-up radiographs were calculated. The percentage of patients with clinically meaningful change in MSS (≥ 5) for each month of exposure was assessed using a longitudinal marginal structural model with inverse probability of treatment weights. Mean values and CIs were generated using 1000 bootstrapped samples., Results: For 246 eligible patients, the mean (s.d.) age was 58 (11) years; 81% were male. The mean (s.d.) initial MSS was 19.6 (33.4) (range 0-214). The mean change (s.d.) in MSS was 0.3 (3.6) (median 0, range -19 to 22). Patients with the greatest exposure had the least radiographic progression for both crude and adjusted model analyses. Adjusted rates of MSS change ≥ 5 points (95% CI) were 10.6% (9.8%, 11.4%) for patients with 3 months of exposure compared with 5.4% (5.1%, 5.7%) for patients with 12 months of exposure., Conclusion: One-year changes in radiographic progression were small. Patients with the greatest cumulative TNFi exposure experienced the least progression., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology 2019. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.)

Objectives: Obese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be more likely to discontinue therapy than non-obese patients, possibly signifying a more refractory phenotype. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and discontinuation rates for different RA treatments accounting for confounding factors., Methods: Veterans Affairs administrative databases were used to define initial courses of methotrexate (MTX), hydroxychloroquine, sulfasalazine, prednisone, and self-injectable tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi). Discontinuation was defined as a lapse in drug refill >90 days. Using overweight BMI (25-30 kg/m2) as the referent group, multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate associations between BMI category and time to treatment discontinuation., Results: There were 46,970 initial RA treatment courses identified from 2005-2014 among 23,669 Veterans with RA. In multivariable models, severe obesity (BMI >35 kg/m2), compared to overweight BMI, was not associated with treatment discontinuation with the exception of prednisone [HR 1.10 (1.04, 1.17) p<0.001]. Patients with low (<20 kg/m2) and normal BMI (20-25 kg/m2) were more likely to discontinue MTX, TNFi, and HCQ compared to overweight patients. Other factors associated with earlier MTX and/or TNFi discontinuation included female sex, black race, greater comorbidity, depression, malignancy, congestive heart failure, current smoking, and more recent calendar year., Conclusions: Obesity was not associated with therapy discontinuation among veterans with RA after accounting for confounding factors, suggesting that obesity is not a biological mediator of more refractory disease. Conversely, low BMI, comorbidity, and depression were identified as important predictors of drug discontinuation.

Objectives: Recruiting professional staff is an important business reason for hospitals allowing health trainees to engage in supervised patient care. Whereas prior studies have focused on educational institutions, this study focuses on teaching hospitals and whether trainees' clinical experiences affect their willingness to work (ie, recruitability) for the type of healthcare center where they trained., Study Design: A pre-post, observational study based on Learners' Perceptions Survey data in which respondents served as their own controls., Methods: Convenience sample of 15,207 physician, 11,844 nursing, and 13,012 associated health trainees who rotated through 1 of 169 US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2017. Generalized estimating equations computed how clinical, learning, working, and cultural experiences influenced pre-post differences in willingness to consider VA for future employment., Results: VA recruitability increased dramatically from 55% pretraining to 75% post training (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.1; 95% CI, 2.0-2.1; P <.001) in all 3 cohorts: physician (from 39% to 59%; OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.5-1.6; P <.001), nursing (from 61% to 84%; OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 2.4-2.6; P <.001), and associated health trainees (from 68% to 87%; OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 2.6-2.9; P <.001). For all trainees, changes in recruitability (P <.001) were associated with how trainees rated their clinical learning environment, personal experiences, and culture of psychological safety. Satisfaction ratings with faculty and preceptors (P <.001) were associated with positive changes in recruitability among nursing and associated health students but not physician residents, whereas nursing students who gave higher ratings for interprofessional team culture became less recruitable., Conclusions: Academic medical centers can attract their health trainees for future employment if they provide positive clinical, working, learning, and cultural experiences.

Objective: Biologic therapies can improve disease control for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but may be both overused and underused. We aimed to identify predictors of greater use of biologic therapies and to identify factors associated with persistent glucocorticoid use., Methods: Using national US Veteran's Affairs databases 2005-2016, we identified patients with RA receiving a first-ever prescription of methotrexate (MTX), requiring ≥ 6 months of baseline data. We evaluated predictors of biologic therapy initiation within 2 years of starting MTX and factors associated with baseline and persistent glucocorticoid use at 6-12 months using multivariable models., Results: Among 17,415 patients starting MTX, 3263 patients received biologic therapy within 2 years (20.6% 2-yr incidence). In adjusted analyses, biologic use was substantially lower in older patients [e.g., aHR 0.20 (95% CI 0.16, 0.26) for patients ≥ 80 vs < 50] and patients with more comorbidities [aHR 0.79 (95% CI 0.72, 0.87) for Charlson score ≥ 3 vs < 3]. Patients with heart failure [aHR 0.68 (95% CI 0.54, 0.84)], cancer [aHR 0.78 (95% CI 0.66, 0.92)], or who were nonwhite [aHR 0.79 (95% CI 0.72, 0.87)] were also less likely to receive a biologic. In contrast, baseline and persistent glucocorticoid use was similar across age groups and more common in patients with greater comorbidity., Conclusion: Biologic therapy is initiated less frequently in patients with RA who are older, have more comorbidities, and who are nonwhite. While biologics may be avoided in older and sicker patients because of safety concerns, glucocorticoid use is similar regardless of age and is more frequent in patients with comorbidities, with implications for patient outcomes.

Objective: Cross-sectional studies have demonstrated that obese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often report greater disability. The longitudinal effects of obesity, however, are not well-characterized. We evaluated associations between obesity, weight loss, and worsening of disability in patients of 2 large registry studies, which included patients who were followed for longer periods of time., Methods: This study included patients with RA from the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases (FORWARD) (n = 23,323) and the Veterans Affairs RA (VARA) registry study (n = 1,697). Results of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) or Multidimensional HAQ (MD-HAQ) were recorded through follow-up. Significant worsening of disability was defined as an increase of >0.2 in HAQ or MD-HAQ scores. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the risk of worsening of disability from baseline and to adjust for demographics, baseline disability, comorbidity, disease duration, and other disease features., Results: At enrollment, disability scores were higher among severely obese patients compared to those who were overweight both in FORWARD (β = 0.17 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.14, 0.20]; P < 0.001) and in the VARA registry (β = 0.17 [95% CI 0.074, 0.27]; P = 0.001). In multivariable models, patients who were severely obese at enrollment had a greater risk of progressive disability compared to overweight patients in FORWARD (HR 1.25 [95% CI 1.18, 1.33] P < 0.001) and in the VARA registry (HR 1.33 [95% CI 1.07, 1.66]; P = 0.01). Weight loss following enrollment was also associated with a greater risk in both cohorts. In the VARA registry, associations were independent of other clinical factors, including time-varying C-reactive protein and swollen joint count., Conclusion: Severe obesity is associated with a more rapid progression of disability in RA. Weight loss is also associated with worsening disability, possibly due to it being an indication of chronic illness and the development of age-related or disease-related frailty., (© 2018, American College of Rheumatology.)

Assess the impact of chronic lung diseases (CLD) on survival in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Among participants in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) Registry, a prospective cohort of U.S. Veterans with RA, we identified CLD and cardiovascular disease (CVD) using administrative and registry data. Demographics, smoking status, RA characteristics including Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28), and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) use were obtained from registry data, which were linked to the National Death Index to obtain vital status. We evaluated associations of CLD with survival using the multivariable Cox regression models. Among a large (n = 2053), male-predominant (91%) RA cohort, 554 (27%) had CLD at enrollment. Mortality risk was increased 1.51-fold (95% CI 1.26-1.81) in RA patients with CLD after multivariable adjustment, a risk that was similar to that observed with CVD (HR CLD alone 1.46 [1.03-2.06]; CVD alone 1.62 [1.35-1.94]). Survival was significantly reduced in those with interstitial lung disease (ILD) as well as other forms of CLD. Mortality risk with methotrexate and biologic use was not different in those with CLD compared to those without (p interaction ≥ 0.15) using multiple exposure definitions and propensity score adjustment. Mortality risk is significantly increased in RA patients with CLD. This risk is attributable not only to ILD but also to other chronic lung conditions and does not appear to be substantially greater in those receiving methotrexate or biologic therapies. Comorbid lung disease should be targeted as a means of improving long-term outcomes in RA.

Background: Big data research is important for studying uncommon diseases in real-world settings. Most big data studies in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) have been limited to populations identified with billing codes for ankylosing spondylitis (AS). axSpA is a more inclusive concept, and reliance on AS codes does not produce a comprehensive axSpA study population. The first objective was to describe our process for establishing an appropriate sample of patients with and without axSpA for developing accurate axSpA identification methods. The second objective was to determine the classification performance of AS billing codes against the chart-reviewed axSpA reference standard., Methods: Veteran Health Affairs clinical and administrative data, between January 2005 and June 2015, were used to randomly select patients with clinical phenotypes that represented high, moderate, and low likelihoods of an axSpA diagnosis. With chart review, the sampled patients were classified as Yes axSpA, No axSpA or Uncertain axSpA, and these classification assignments were used as the reference standard for determining the positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity of AS ICD-9 codes for axSpA., Results: Six hundred patients were classified as Yes axSpA (26.8%), No axSpA (68.3%), or Uncertain axSpA (4.8%). The PPV and sensitivity of an AS ICD-9 code for axSpA were 83.3% and 57.3%, respectively., Conclusions: Standard methods of identifying axSpA patients in a large dataset lacked sensitivity. An appropriate sample of patients with and without axSpA was established and characterized for developing novel axSpA identification methods that are anticipated to enable previously impractical big data research.

Purpose: This study reports the effect of disease-modifying therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) over 6 months and incident hypertension over 3 years in a large administrative database., Methods: We used administrative Veterans Affairs databases to define unique dispensing episodes of methotrexate, leflunomide, sulfasalazine, hydroxychloroquine, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, and prednisone among patients with RA. Changes in SBP and DBP in the 6 months before disease-modifying antirheumatic drug initiation were compared with changes observed in the 6 months after initiation. The risk of incident hypertension within 3 years (new diagnosis code for hypertension and prescription for antihypertensive) was also assessed. Multivariable models and propensity analyses assessed the impact of confounding by indication., Results: A total of 37,900 treatment courses in 21,216 unique patients contributed data. Overall, there were no changes in SBP or DBP in 6 months prior to disease-modifying antirheumatic drug initiation (all P > 0.62). In contrast, there was a decline in SBP (β = -1.08 [-1.32 to -0.85]; P < 0.0001) and DBP (β = -0.48 [-0.62 to -0.33]; P < 0.0001) over the 6 months following initiation. The greatest decline was observed among methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine users. Methotrexate users were 9% more likely to have optimal blood pressure (BP) after 6 months of treatment. Patients treated with leflunomide had increases in BP and a greater risk of incident hypertension compared with patients treated with methotrexate (hazard ratio, 1.53 [1.21-1.91]; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Blood pressure may improve with treatment of RA, particularly with methotrexate or hydroxychloroquine. Leflunomide use, in contrast, is associated with increases in BP and a greater risk of incident hypertension.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of access to and distance from rheumatology care on the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) in US veterans with inflammatory arthritis (IA)., Methods: Provider encounters and DMARD dispensations for IA (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis) were evaluated in national Veterans Affairs (VA) datasets between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015., Results: Among 12,589 veterans with IA, 23.5% saw a rheumatology provider. In the general IA population, 25.3% and 13.6% of veterans were exposed to a synthetic DMARD (sDMARD) and biologic DMARD (bDMARD), respectively. DMARD exposure was 2.6- to 3.4-fold higher in the subpopulation using rheumatology providers, compared to the general IA population. The distance between veterans' homes and the closest VA rheumatology site was < 40 miles (Near) for 55.9%, 40-99 miles (Intermediate) for 31.7%, and ≥ 100 miles (Far) for 12.4%. Veterans in the Intermediate and Far groups were less likely to see a rheumatology provider than veterans in the Near group (RR = 0.72 and RR = 0.49, respectively). Exposure to bDMARD was 34% less frequent in the Far group than the Near group. In the subpopulation who used rheumatology care, the bDMARD exposure discrepancy did not persist between distance groups., Conclusion: Use of rheumatology care and DMARD was low for veterans with IA. DMARD exposure was strongly associated with rheumatology care use. Veterans in the general IA population living far from rheumatology sites accessed rheumatology care and bDMARD less frequently than veterans living close to rheumatology sites.

Aim: To determine the scope of acute hypoglycemic effects for certain anti-rheumatic medications in a large retrospective observational study., Methods: Patients enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry were selected who, during follow-up, initiated treatment with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi's, including etanercept, adalimumab, infliximab, golimumab, or certolizumab), prednisone, or conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and for whom proximate random blood glucose (RBG) measurements were available within a window 2-wk prior to, and 6 mo following, medication initiation. Similar data were obtained for patients with proximate values available for glycosylated hemoglobin A1C values within a window 2 mo preceding, and 12 mo following, medication initiation. RBG and A1C measurements were compared before and after initiation events using paired t -tests, and multivariate regression analysis was performed including established comorbidities and demographics., Results: Two thousands one hundred and eleven patients contributed at least one proximate measurement surrounding the initiation of any examined medication. A significant decrease in RBG was noted surrounding 653 individual hydroxychloroquine-initiation events (-3.68 mg/dL, P = 0.04), while an increase was noted for RBG surrounding 665 prednisone-initiation events (+5.85 mg/dL, P < 0.01). A statistically significant decrease in A1C was noted for sulfasalazine initiation, as measured by 49 individual initiation events (-0.70%, P < 0.01). Multivariate regression analyses, using methotrexate as the referent, suggest sulfasalazine (β = -0.58, P = 0.01) and hydroxychloroquine (β = -5.78, P = 0.01) use as predictors of lower post-medication-initiation RBG and A1C values, respectively. Analysis by drug class suggested prednisone (or glucocorticoids) as predictive of higher medication-initiation event RBG among all start events as compared to DMARDs, while this analysis did not show any drug class-level effect for TNFi. A diagnosis of congestive heart failure (β = 4.69, P = 0.03) was predictive for higher post-initiation RBG values among all medication-initiation events., Conclusion: No statistically significant hypoglycemic effects surrounding TNFi initiation were observed in this large cohort. Sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine may have epidemiologically significant acute hypoglycemic effects., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts-of-interest related to this article.

Objective: To examine associations of body mass index (BMI) and weight loss with cause-specific mortality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA)., Methods: A cohort of US veterans with RA was followed until death or through 2013. BMI was categorized as underweight, normal, overweight, and obese. Weight loss was calculated as the 1) annualized rate of change over the preceding 13 months, and 2) cumulative percent. Vital status and cause of death were obtained from the National Death Index. Multivariable competing-risks regression models were utilized to assess the time-varying associations of BMI and weight loss with cause-specific mortality., Results: Among 1,600 participants and 5,789 patient-years of followup, 303 deaths occurred (95 cardiovascular, 74 cancer, and 46 respiratory). The highest weight-loss rate and weight-loss percent were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (rate: subdistribution hazard ratio [sHR] 2.27 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.61-3.19]; percent: sHR 2.31 [95% CI 1.06-5.01]) and cancer mortality (rate: sHR 2.36 [95% CI 1.11-5.01]; percent: sHR 1.90 [95% CI 1.00-3.62]). Overweight BMI was protective of cardiovascular mortality (sHR 0.59 [95% CI 0.38-0.91]), while underweight BMI was associated with a near 3-fold increased risk of respiratory mortality (sHR 2.93 [95% CI 1.28-6.67]). Incorporation of time-varying BMI and weight loss in the same models did not substantially alter individual associations for cardiovascular and cancer mortality, but an association between weight-loss percentage and respiratory mortality was attenuated after BMI adjustment., Conclusion: Both BMI and weight loss are predictors of cause-specific mortality in RA. Weight loss is a strong predictor of cardiovascular and cancer mortality, while underweight BMI is a stronger predictor of respiratory mortality., (© 2017, American College of Rheumatology.)