Assessment of physical functioning in rheumatoid arthritis patients after rituximab therapy using health assessment questionnaire-disability index

The most frequently used instrument for measuring self-reported physical function in rheumatoid arthritis is the health assessment questionnaire – disability index. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of treatment with rituximab on patient-reported outcomes in severe rheumatoid arthritis patients. Rituximab was initiated in RA-diagnosed patients who experienced treatment failure or decreased response on the administration of conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Treatment response after 1g of rituximab infusion was assessed at <6 months and > 6 months follow-up period using patient-reported outcome measure tools and laboratory investigations. Functional ability was evaluated using a questionnaire and the overall disability index was calculated. It was found that all patients achieved minimum clinically important difference(>0.2) from baseline HAQ value within 6 months of rituximab. Assessment of the functional ability demonstrated that the majority of the patients experienced significant improvement in all domains of HAQ-DI after rituximab administration. Patient global assessment shared a moderate correlation with almost all domains of HAQ-DI. Physical function as measured by HAQ-DI showed clinically meaningful improvement within 1 year of rituximab therapy. It has proven to be a safer and more effective treatment option when compared to conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and has also helped in achieving better responses at a faster pace.