ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1613129
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Small Molecule Inhibitors in Cancer, Inflammation, and Autoimmune DisordersView all articles
Efficacy of iguratimod in the treatment of patients with palindromic rheumatism ineffective to methotrexate or hydroxychloroquine Authors
Provisionally accepted
- 1First People's Hospital of Wenling, Wenling, China
- 2Yuhuan Second People's Hospital, Yuhuan, China
- 3Seventh People’s Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Introduction: Palindromic Rheumatism (PR) is a rare form of arthritis characterized by recurrent episodes of joint and periarticular inflammation. Given the paucity of established treatment guidelines due to its rarity and complex pathogenesis, we aimed to analyze the efficacy and safety of iguratimod (IGU) in the treatment of refractory PR.Methods: This retrospective study included patients with PR who attended the First People's Hospital of Wenling between January 2019 and September 2023. 32 patients with poor response to methotrexate (MTX) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) were enrolled and were switched to IGU 25 mg twice daily alone or in combination with MTX 10 mg weekly. The primary outcomes measured included the frequency and duration of disease attacks over a three-month period.Complete remission was defined as no attacks within three months, partial remission as a reduction of at least 50% in attack frequency, and no remission as less than a 50% reduction.Results:The median treatment duration with IGU was 11.3 months. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in the number of attacks over a three-month period (1.3±1.4 vs. 5.8±2.0, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, patients experienced a decrease in attack frequency and an increase in remission duration (78.0(33.8,99.0) days vs. 15.0(13.0,22.0) days, P < 0.0001). The duration of each attack was also shortened (2.1±0.7 days vs. 2.5±0.8 days, P=0.0042). Only one patient discontinued IGU due to gastric upset. Conclusion: Iguratimod has demonstrated favorable efficacy and safety in the treatment of patients with PR who have not responded adequately to MTX and HCQ, which needs to be further confirmed.
Keywords: Arthritis, Treatment, DMARD, palindromic rheumatism, Iguratimod
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Cheng, Jin, Tu, Zhang, 传富 and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenlong Wang, First People's Hospital of Wenling, Wenling, China
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