A new study published by Orbai et al in BMC Rheumatology discovered that tofacitinib effectively improved dactylitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis, according to a report from Healio. In two phase III trials, researchers administered a regimen of either 5 mg or 10 mg of tofacitinib or a placebo twice daily to 337 patients exhibiting baseline dactylitis severity scores of 0 and 373 patients exhibiting baseline scores higher than 0—both of which hadn’t previously responded to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs—and discovered that after taking tofacitinib for 1 month, patients with dactylitis severity scores higher than 0 saw greater improvements to their conditions compared with those receiving placebo. Further, after taking tofacitinib for 6 months, presence of dactylitis for patients with scores greater than 0 was 15% or lower, and presence of dactylitis for those with scores of 0 was 2%—demonstrating that the medication may have the potential to provide sustained dactylitis improvement and prevent new emergence of the condition. The researchers noted that the next steps will be to monitor dactylitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis who are taking tofacitinib for longer than 6 months in order to better evaluate its effectiveness.
May 25, 2023