Numbers and rates of incident tuberculosis, switchers included
| Number of patients ever received the drug | DMARD (n=3232) | All anti-TNF (n=10 712) | ETA (n=5521) | INF (n=3718) | ADA (n=4857) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On drug* | |||||
| Person-years | 7345 | 28 447 | 12 744 | 8069 | 7634 |
| Cases of TB | 0 | 27 | 5 | 11 | 11 |
| Rate/100 000 person-years (95% CI) | 0 | 95 (63 to 138) | 39 (13 to 92) | 136 (68 to 244) | 144 (72 to 258) |
| IRR, adjusted for age, gender and entry year (95% CI) | Referent | 3.1 (1.0 to 9.5) | 4.2 (1.4 to 12.4) | ||
| Most recent drug* | |||||
| Person-years | 7345 | 34 025 | 15 070 | 9730 | 9224 |
| Cases of TB | 0 | 40 | 8 | 12 | 20 |
| Rate/100 000 personyears (95% CI) | 0 | 118 (84 to 160) | 53 (23 to 105) | 123 (64 to 215) | 217 (132 to 335) |
| IRR, adjusted for age, gender and entry year (95% CI) | Referent | 2.2 (0.9 to 5.8) | 4.2 (1.8 to 9.9) | ||
Patients could switch between anti-TNF therapies, but all TB cases were attributable to one drug only
↵* The two models of risk attribution are illustrated in fig 1.
ADA, adalimumab; DMARDs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; ETA, etanercept; INF, infliximab; IRR, incidence rate ratio; TB, tuberculosis; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.