Huiqin Yang

This research assessed the clinical effectiveness of using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests to measure drug levels and/or their anti-drug antibodies for monitoring response to TNF-α inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis patients who had achieved treatment target (remission or low disease activity), or experienced a primary non-response or a secondary non-response. A range of bibliographic databases including MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from inception to November 2018. Both randomised controlled trials and non-randomised controlled studies comparing therapeutic drug monitoring by using ELISA tests with standard care were included. The eligible ELISA test kits (Promonitor, IDKmonitor, LISA-TRACKER, RIDASCREEN, MabTrack and Sanquin) for monitoring response to TNF-α inhibitors were used to measure drug levels and/or their anti-drug antibodies. The eligible populations were patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were being treated with a TNF-α inhibitor (adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab, certolizumab pegol or golimumab) and had achieved treatment target (remission or low disease activity), or experienced a primary non-response or a secondary non-response. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane (ROBINS-1) tool for non-randomised studies with adaptations as appropriate. A narrative synthesis approach was employed due to considerable clinical heterogeneity between included studies. This talk will give an overview of research findings and highlight methodological challenges and its important implications for future research.