Background Fatigue is a common symptom of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), it can greatly affect the patient's quality of life. Our study aimed to evaluate fatigue evolution and its correlation with the scalability parameters in RA patient's naive to TNF blockers, treated with rituximab (RTX).

Methods prospective observational study Including patients who fulfilled the ACR 1987 RA criteria and/or ACR/EULAR 2010 RA criteria, treated with rituximab (RTX), after conventional treatment failure. Patients were followed prospectively over a period of 06 months. Fatigue was assessed respectively before treatment (T0), after treatment at 3 months (T1), 6 months (T2) in all patients. We used the 10 mm visual analogue scale of the fatigue and the FACIT -F questionnaire (functional assessment of chronic illness therapy -fatigue). We assessed at the same time, DAS vs- 28, ESR and HAQ (Health Assessment Questionnaire).

Results 28 patients were included, mean age: 51.17±10 years. The RA mean duration was 13.55±6.26 years. ACPA positive in 78%.Table 1 summarizes the values of various parameters (DAS28, HAQ, VAS fatigue, FACIT -F) measured respectively at T0, T1, and T2. At T0, all the patients reported a variable degree of fatigue.

We noted a significant correlation between the rate of DAS28 and VAS fatigue at T0, T1 and T2, a significant correlation between HAQ and VAS-fatigue at T0, T1, T2.

Conclusions In patients rheumatoid arthritis treated with RTX, fatigue improvement seems to be positively correlated with the disease activity and the quality of life.

References

1. I. Rupp, H.C. Boshuizen, C.E. J.H. Dimant and al.Impact of fatigue on health-related quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res. 51 (2004), pp4578-85.

2. R. Caporali and al. Long term treatment of rheumatoid arthritis zith rituximab. Autoimmunity Reviews. Volume 8, June 2009, pages 591-94.

Disclosure of Interest None declared

DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2478