Rituximab did not alleviate symptoms or disease activity in patients with pSS at week 24, although it alleviated some symptoms at earlier time points.

This study determined disease activity levels, PASS and MCII of ESSDAI and ESSPRI. These results will help designing future clinical trials in SS. For evaluating systemic complications, the proposal is to include patients with moderate activity (ESSDAI≥5) and define response to treatment as an improvement of ESSDAI at least three points. For addressing patient-reported outcomes, inclusion of patients with unsatisfactory symptom state (ESSPRI≥5) and defining response as an improvement of ESSPRI at least one point or 15% seems reasonable.

clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00632866.

In patients in remission with low levels of imaging synovitis receiving combination treatment with a TNF blocker and MTX, immunological parameters and short duration of untreated symptoms were associated with successful cessation of TNF blocker therapy.