Test Can Predict the Risk of Radiographic Progression in RA Patients

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with high multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) scores have an increased risk of radiographic progression (RP), according to a new analysis of 6 different studies.

Patients with RA suffer from joint inflammation and joint damage and the MBDA test is able to analyze 12 serum protein biomarkers to quantify the level of disease activity in a patient’s body to a score between 1 and 100.

In a recent poster presented at the European League Against Rheumatism meeting in Madrid, Spain, researchers conducted a meta-analysis with the data collected from 6 subject groups in attempt to reveal the association between MBDA scores and RP risk in those suffering from RA. The patients in the 6 studies that were analyzed had to be receiving the RA treatment csDMARD, alone or in combination with adalimumab, infliximab or abatacept.

Four of the subject groups reported their MBDA score (low, moderate, or high), at the beginning of the year while 2 reported at the end of the year to determine the frequency of RP throughout the course of 12 months. The study analyzed these results through categorizing each group with a positive predictive value (PPV) or negative predictive value based on patient comparisons with high MBDA scores versus low MBDA scores.

This data allowed the relative RP relative risk to be calculated. Results revealed evidence for frequent RP among patients with high MBDA scores in comparison to low or moderate MBDA scores, 3.6 to 9.5 (P = 0.002 to < 0.0001), for the individual studies. More specifically, the individual Leiden study, demonstrated that the MBDA score is the most significant predictor of RP.

“The meta-analysis results, combined with published evidence that MBDA score used with clinical measures yields PPVs of ~60%, suggest that biomarkers can help stratify patients by their risk for RP,” the researchers concluded.