Key clinical point: Patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with first-line biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARD), particularly tofacitinib, were at an increased risk for herpes zoster (HZ).
Major finding: Overall, the risk for HZ was significantly higher in patients receiving tofacitinib (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.46; P < .001), infliximab (aHR 1.36; P = .017), or adalimumab (aHR 1.29; P = .032) vs abatacept, with tofacitinib also increasing the risk for incident (aHR 1.99; P = .011) and recurrent (aHR 3.69; P < .001) HZ in patients without prior history of HZ.
Study details: This was a cohort study including 11,720 patients with seropositive RA who received first-line bDMARD or tsDMARD.
Disclosures: This study was supported by the Ministry of Health Welfare, Republic of Korea. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Jeong S et al. Incident and recurrent herpes zoster for first-line bDMARD and tsDMARD users in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis patients: a nationwide cohort study. Arthritis Res Ther. 2022;24:180 (Jul 28). Doi: 10.1186/s13075-022-02871-1