RESEARCH ARTICLE
Baseline Characteristics of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis and Psoriatic Arthritis Treated with Secukinumab in the Real-World Setting: AQUILA, a Non-Interventional Study
Uta Kiltz1, Carolin Legeler2, *, Monika Maier-Peuschel2, Christian Mann2, Hans-Peter Tony3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 13
First Page: 53
Last Page: 60
Publisher ID: TORJ-13-53
DOI: 10.2174/1874312901913010053
Article History:
Received Date: 15/02/2019Revision Received Date: 22/03/2019
Acceptance Date: 10/04/2019
Electronic publication date: 30/04/2019
Collection year: 2019
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective:
AQUILA is an ongoing, multicenter, prospective, Non-Interventional Study (NIS) with secukinumab, designed to evaluate real-world evidence for different aspects of treatment in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in Germany. Here we report the study design and baseline characteristics including comorbidities and prior medication of patients as well as insights into medical care in Germany.
Methods:
Patients (age ≥18 years) with active AS or PsA, who were under secukinumab treatment or just about initiating secukinumab therapy based on medical therapeutic need, are enrolled. Each patient is observed for 52 weeks.
Results:
A total of 572 patients (AS, n = 187; PsA, n = 385) have been recruited in this ongoing study. Mean age, weight, and BMI were similar between the subgroups. About 66.4% of patients had previously received biologics other than secukinumab. Depression was the most common comorbidity (AS, 9.1%; PsA, 15.6%). Plaque psoriasis was also frequently reported (AS, 9.6%; PsA, 62.3%).
Conclusion:
The Non-Interventional Study (NIS) baseline characteristics indicate that the demographics were similar to populations of previous secukinumab trials of AS and PsA patients except to comorbidities and exposure to biologics. A majority of the patients who received secukinumab in this setting had previously received biologics. Comorbidities relating to obesity and cardiovascular disease were particularly evident in PsA patients whereas the elevated depression prevalence was equally distributed.