Patients with new-onset lupus nephritis may be more likely to achieve a complete renal response if initially given a higher dose of prednisone than currently recommended, findings indicate.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who continue taking prednisone as maintenance therapy for at least a year after achieving clinically inactive disease experience fewer flares than those who stop taking prednisone, suggest results from the CORTICOLUP trial.

Wednesday 12 June: 16:15–17:45 (Abstract OP0030) Rheumatoid arthritis patients who had stable low disease activity on tocilizumab plus conventional DMARDs and prednisone were randomly assigned to taper their prednisone dose or continue with the same dose in this 24-week study.

This phase IIIb/IV trial compared glucocorticoid tapering versus continuation among rheumatoid arthritis patients receiving tocilizumab treatment. Wednesday 12 June: 16:15–17:45 (Abstract OP0030)

Adding prednisone to methotrexate treatment is associated with a persistent reduction in the rate of biologic treatment initiation and improvement in radiographic outcomes among patients with rheumatoid arthritis, researchers report.

The IL-6 receptor inhibitor tocilizumab may significantly reduce disease activity and the amount of prednisone needed in people with glucocorticoid-dependent active polymyalgia rheumatica, suggest results from a phase 3 trial published in JAMA .

At 20.9% of these visits, participants were classified as in remission off-treatment, defined as a clinical SLEDAI-2K score of 0 without prednisone or immunosuppressants, and at 19.8% of visits they were considered to be in remission on-treatment, defined as a clinical SLEDAI-2K score of 0, with prednisone treatment at or below 5 mg/day and/or maintenance immunosuppressants.

At the end of induction, the 215 patients who achieved a complete or partial response were randomly assigned to receive 36 months of maintenance therapy with leflunomide 20 mg/day (n=108) or azathioprine 50 mg/day increasing to 100 mg/day (n=107), each in combination with prednisone or equivalent (maximum 10 mg/day).

They were also allowed to take low-dose corticosteroids (prednisone ≤10 mg/day) when necessary.

The researchers investigated sarilumab’s efficacy and safety in relapsing PMR in a trial involving 117 patients aged 50 years or older (median 69–70 years) with active PMR who had a median of two disease flares while taking at least 7.5 mg/day of prednisone or equivalent.

The noninferiority study included 299 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and LN class III, IV, V, III+V, or IV+V from 35 centers in China who were randomly assigned to receive initial therapy with oral tacrolimus 4 mg/day (with adjustments to maintain trough levels of 4–10 ng/mL) or intravenous cyclophosphamide (target dose 0.5–1.0 g/m 2 ), both given in combination with prednisone.

Cumulative prednisone dose and effective disease control are both associated with increased BMI among patients with giant cell arteritis, post-hoc analysis of the GiACTA trial suggests.

Once clinically stable for at least 2 weeks on their entry-level prednisone dose, all participants were given once-daily baricitinib 4 mg for 1 year alongside accelerated GC tapering, aiming to stop use by week 15–22.

And as we know as well, active disease is not necessarily good for either the disease itself or even the risks that come with COVID and other infections, with the use of higher doses of prednisone and so forth.

A total of three received concomitant prednisone, which was tapered and discontinued by week 4.

They explain that background therapy in both groups comprised mycophenolate mofetil 1 g twice daily plus intravenous methylprednisolone 0.25–0.5 g/day for 2 days followed by rapidly tapering oral prednisone with a starting dose of 20–25 mg/day.

The ACR panel did not reach consensus for a recommendation on vaccination timing in patients taking prednisone-equivalent doses of 20 mg/day or higher.

Aranow reported that the rate of disease control at week 52 – defined as a SLEDAI-2K score of 2 points or lower with a prednisone-equivalent dose of 5 mg/day or less and no other immunosuppressants – was 19.4% for the 144 participants who were randomly assigned to receive 52 weeks of treatment with belimumab 200 mg/week alongside rituximab 1000 mg at weeks 4 and 6.

They were all given oral prednisone at a starting dose of 20 mg, which was rapidly tapered to nil over 11 weeks.