Time course of bone mineral density changes during 4-year rituximab therapy in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Objective: to estimate the time course of bone mineral density (BMD) changes during 4-year rituximab (RTM) therapy in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Subjects and methods. Seventy-nine postmenopausal women with a valid diagnosis of RA were followed up. According to the basic therapy option, all the patients were allocated into two groups: 1) 44 patients who received combination therapy with RTM and methotrexate (MT); 2) 35 patients who had MT monotherapy. BMD was estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry using an Excell XR-46 stationary dualenergy X-ray bone densitometer (Norland, USA).Results. There was a statistically significant increase in femoral neck BMD and T score as compared to the baseline values in the RTM group after 3 years of follow-up. The MT monotherapy group showed no statistically significant densitometric changes in the femoral neck. The similar positive BMD changes were observed 4 years following RTM and MT therapy.Conclusion. Following 2 therapy cycles, femoral neck BMD parameters were noted to be stabilized in the patients with RA. After 3 therapy cycles, there was a positive densitometric change that remained by the fourth therapy cycle.

Keywords

• postmenopausal women
• rheumatoid arthritis
• osteoporosis
• bone mineral density
• rituximab