Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in Predicting Early Dose Titration With Tocilizumab — RASTS  

Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trial

Official title: Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in Predicting Early Dose Titration With Tocilizumab

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this research study is to determine if a change in inflammation or baseline inflammation seen on the ultrasound is a good indicator of how rheumatoid arthritis patients respond to TCZ 4mg/kg and whether early prediction of dose escalation is possible by utilizing ultrasound inflammatory measures.

Clinical Trial Description

This is a 24-week, double blind open label clinical trial study to evaluate 57 active Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients who have moderate to severe disease activity with total Power Doppler Ultrasound (PDUS) >10 of 34 joints evaluated by Ultrasound (US) (at screening to enter into the study). All patients will begin treatment with tocilizumab at a dose of 4mg/kg. Two study sites will recruit patients (UCLA and UF) using the same protocol, after standardizing US acquisition methods, as well as scoring. US synovitis scores will be acquired at screening, baseline, and pre-infusion at 4, 12, 16, and 24 weeks, to be able to determine whether change in pre-infusion synovitis score at 4 weeks can be used to predict change in disease activity at 12 weeks. This will provide evidence to whether such reading is useful in predicting which patients may require escalation of dose from 4 to 8 mg/kg. At 12 weeks, patients not meeting low disease activity within the 4mg/kg (disease activity score DAS28/ Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)-4item<3.2) will increase the tocilizumab dose to 8mg/kg (maximum dose 800mg) in a blinded manner to enable evaluation of these US-focused objectives in the context of the current FDA-approved label. The ultrasound scorer will not know information about patient's disease activity (Tender Joint Count (TJC), Swollen Joint Count (SJC), labs etc) or if there was dose escalation at 12 weeks. The clinical assessor of disease activity will be blinded to the ultrasound scores. Additionally, the patient will also be blinded to dose escalation. If patients in the 4mg/kg arm achieve DAS28<3.2 at 12 weeks, patients will continue with their current dose for the duration of the study. Please see the below Table for details on the blinding plan. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Arthritis
• Arthritis, Rheumatoid
• Rheumatoid Arthritis

• NCT number: NCT01717859
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of California, Los Angeles
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Start date: September 2014
• Completion date: April 2017