Data from the Romanian Registry of Rheumatic Diseases for patients with psoriatic arthritis treated with biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs during 2019

The Romanian Register of Rheumatic Diseases (RRBR, in Romanian) is an electronic database which includes data regarding all patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases who receive biologic therapies. These real-life data include: demographics, clinical disease forms, comorbidities, treatment regimens with biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), and efficacy and safety data related to these treatments. The purpose of this study was to analyse the data of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) introduced in the RRBR in RRBR was relatively constant compared to previous years. Patients with PsA had numerous comorbidities, with cardiovascular being the most commonly encountered. Most patients continue to receive combination therapy with a conventional synthetic DMARD (csDMARD), methotrexate being the most commonly used, but the percentage was lower than 2018. The concomitant use of systemic glucocorticoids has been recorded at a very low percentage. There is a tendency to initiate biologic treatment earlier, with over one third of patients receiving biologic therapy within the first 2 years after diagnosis. The most prescribed bDMARDs are still TNF blockers, with etanercept (original + biosimilar) being the most common, followed by adalimumab (original + biosimilar). The only biologic agent with another mechanism of action that was reimbursed in Romania in 2019 was secukinumab, this drug being used in almost one third of initiation and being the main option in the case of switches. The efficacy data show that the vast majority of patients have a low disease activity or are in remission. Although the percentage of patients who had a tapering regimen was reduced, this strategy proved to be a valid option for the majority of those to which it was applied. RRBR is an extremely useful tool for evaluating real-life data related to patients with PsA and the therapeutic strategies used in Romania, allowing their integration and interpretation in the context of similar registers in other countries.