Correspondence on 'Efficacy of a tight-control and treat-to-target strategy in axial spondyloarthritis: results of the open-label, pragmatic, cluster-randomised TICOSPA trial

We have read with great interest the work of Anna Molto et al studying on comparing the benefits of TICOSPA (a tight control/treat-to-target strategy (TC/T2T) in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA)) trial with those of usual care (UC).1 They concluded that TC/T2T approach was not significantly superior to UC for the primary outcome, while it might be beneficial in axSpA and had a favourable outcome from a societal health economic perspective. However, we believe that some concerns should be discussed in this important study. First of all, although the primary endpoint Assessmnet of SpondyloArthritis international Society Healthy Index (ASAS-HI) was not met due to relatively small sample size and treatment duration, the EQ5D of TC/T2T arm was significantly superior to UC (p=0.02). We understand that ASAS-HI was a newly validated instrument to measure quality of life in ankylosing spondylitis. However, the selection of this tool as primary endpoint in...
Source: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases - Category: Rheumatology Authors: Tags: ARD Correspondence Source Type: research