Objective To study drug retention and response rates in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) initiating a first tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi). Methods Data from 12 European registries, prospectively collected in routine care, were pooled. TNFi retention rates (Kaplan-Meier statistics), Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) Inactive disease (<1.3), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) <40 mm and Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society responses (ASAS 20/40) were assessed at 6, 12 and 24 months. Results A first TNFi was initiated in 24 195 axSpA patients. Heterogeneity of baseline characteristics between registries was observed. Twelve-month retention was 80% (95% CI 79% to 80%), ranging from 71% to 94% across registries. At 6 months, ASDAS Inactive disease/BASDAI<40 rates were 33%/72% (LUNDEX-adjusted: 27%/59%), ASAS 20/40 response rates 64%/49% (LUNDEX-adjusted 52%/40%). In patients initiating first TNFi after 2009, 6097 patients was registered to fulfil ASAS criteria for axSpA, 2935 was registered to fulfil modified New York Criteria for Ankylosing Spondylitis and 1178 patients was registered as having non-radiographic axSpA. In nr-axSpA patients, we observed lower 12-month retention rates (73% (70%–76%)) and lower 6-month LUNDEX adjusted response rates (ASDAS Inactive disease/BASDAI40 20%/50%, ASAS 20/40 45%/33%). For patients initiating first TNFi after 2014, 12-month retention rate, but not 6-month response rate, was numerically higher compared with patients initiating TNFi in 2009–2014. Conclusion A large European database of patients with axSpA initiating a first TNFi treatment in routine care, demonstrated that 27% of patients achieved ASDAS inactive disease after 6 months, while 59% achieved BASDAI <40. Four of five patients continued treatment after 1 year.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) in a general Turkish population according to the latest proposed American-European Consensus Group (AECG) criteria and European-1 (EU-1) criteria. The study was conducted in two districts of Izmir and involved 2835 subjects 20 years of age and older. In the first stage, face-to-face interviews were performed at the registered households. In the second stage, subjects reporting symptoms of both dry eye and dry mouth were invited to the hospital for a full examination, which included Schirmer-1, sialometry and serologic tests. In the third stage, a minor salivary gland biopsy was performed as required. A total of 2887 subjects were contacted and a complete interview was obtained for 2835 (1551 female, 1284 male) subjects. A total of 159 subjects (126 female, 33 male) confirmed oral and ocular dryness, and 86 of these patients (54.1%) underwent a detailed clinical examination in the hospital. pSS was diagnosed in 10 patients (nine females) according to the EU-1 criteria, and in six patients (six females) according to the AECG criteria. We found a minimum crude prevalence of 0.21% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.03-0.29] in the sample population and an age-sex adjusted prevalence of 0.16% (95% CI: 0.06-0.35), according to AECG criteria. According to EU-1 criteria, these prevalence rates were found to be 0.35% (95% CI: 0.10-0.45) and 0.28% (95% CI: 0.13-0.51) respectively. The pSS prevalence rates found in the Turkish population in this study were lower than the estimated prevalence rate in a general population.