Efficacy and safety of dual filtration plasmapheresis combined with biological agents in active refractory rheumatod arthritis: A retrospective cohort study

To investigate the effectiveness of dual filtration plasmapheresis (DFPP), a novel blood purification treatment, as a rapid and sustained disease-modifying therapy for active refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A retrospective cohort study had been conducted. One hundred fifty three patients aged 18 years or older with active refractory RA were treated with DFPP combined with infliximab (IFX), IFX, or glucocorticoid (GC), all the above treatments were combined with methotrexate (MTX). Baseline characteristic of the 153 patients (DFPP: n = 53; IFX: n = 51; GC: n = 49) were similar across groups. The remission rate of CDAI (SDAI) in the DFPP treatment group was significantly higher than that of the IFX and GC group after 3 months of treatment. The remission rate of DFPP treatment group was above 50%, while in IFX and GC group, the rate of CDAI (SDAI) remission was 41.2% (37.3%) and 22.4% (14.2%) after 3 months of treatment. A combination of DFPP and biological agents can quickly induce remission or low disease activity of active refractory RA.