You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Rheumatoid arthritis
Abatacept is second to rituximab at risk of HBsAg reverse seroconversion in patients with rheumatic disease
  1. Ming-Han Chen1,2,
  2. I-Cheng Lee2,3,
  3. Ming-Huang Chen2,
  4. Ming-Chih Hou3,
  5. Chang-Youh Tsai1,2,
  6. Yi-Hsiang Huang3,4
  1. 1 Division of Allergy, Immunology, & Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. 2 Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
  3. 3 Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  4. 4 Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
  1. Correspondence to Professor Yi-Hsiang Huang, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; yhhuang{at}vghtpe.gov.tw; Dr Ming-Han Chen, Division of Allergy, Immunology, & Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; meikankimo{at}yahoo.com.tw

Abstract

Background Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) reverse seroconversion (RS) can happen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with resolved hepatitis B (RHB) undergoing biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs). But the incidence and risk factors need to be delineated.

Methods From 2003 to 2019, 1937 patients with RA with available HBsAg and antibody to hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen data were retrospectively reviewed, and 489 patients with RHB undergoing bDMARDs treatment were identified. Factors associated with HBsAg RS were analysed.

Results During 67 828 person-months of follow-up, 27 (5.5%) patients developed HBsAg RS after bDMARD treatment. As compared with those without HBsAg RS, patients with HBsAg RS were older, had lower frequency of antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs), and lower baseline anti-HBs levels. In multivariate analysis, rituximab, abatacept and baseline negative for anti-HBs were the independent risk factors for HBsAg RS (adjusted HR: 87.76, 95% CI: 11.50 to 669.73, p<0.001; adjusted HR: 60.57, 95% CI: 6.99 to 525.15, p<0.001; adjusted HR: 5.15, 95% CI: 2.21 to 12.02, p<0.001, respectively). The risk of HBsAg RS was inversely related to the level of anti-HBs. Both rituximab and abatacept might result in anti-HBs loss, and abatacept had a cumulative incidence of HBsAg RS of 35.4%–62.5% in patients with low titers or negative of anti-HBs.

Conclusions Not only rituximab, but also abatacept has a high risk of HBV reactivation in patient with RA with RHB. Anti-HBs positivity cannot confer HBV reactivation-free status if the anti-HBs levels are not high enough for patients with RHB on rituximab and abatacept treatment.

  • abatacept
  • rituximab
  • tumour necrosis factor inhibitors

Data availability statement

All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-220774

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Josef S Smolen

    • Twitter @cytsai1240@gmail.com

    • Contributors All authors were involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and all authors approved the final version to be published. All authors are accountable for all aspects of the work and will ensure questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work will be appropriately investigated and resolved. Study concept and design was by M-HC (Ming-Han) and Y-HH. Acquisition of data was done by M-HC (Ming-Han), I-CL, M-CH, C-YT and Y-HH. M-HC (Ming-Huang) helped in analysis and interpretation of data. Drafting of manuscript was done by M-HC (Ming-Han) and Y-HH. Critical revision of the article was done by M-CH (Ming-Han). Study supervision was done by C-YT and Y-HH.

    • Funding This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (grant numbers MOST 106–2314-B-010–027-MY3).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.