Abatacept administration with intravenous methylprednisolone exhibited increased retention rates of Abatacept and helped in earlier remission, as per a recent study published in Rheumatology international. 

Haruki Sawada and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort analysis to evaluate the effect of intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP) in enhancing Abatacept (ABA) retention rate and their combined impact on getting early remission of RA. Fifty-nine patients with RA who got treatment from January 2010 to May 2017 at a single center of Japan were included in the study. Forty-seven patients received only ABA and twelve received ABA + IVMP. The ABA + IVMP group received 40 mg IVMP along with first three consecutive ABA doses. Kaplan–Meier analysis was done to determine ABA retention. The sensitivity analysis was also done by assessing hazard ratios of drug retention rate.

The ABA group showed 72.3%, and ABA + IVMP group showed 91.7% retention rates. No statistical difference was noticed between two groups as per log-rank analysis (p = 0.17). The sensitivity analysis showed 2.9 to 3.7 hazard ratio in three models with no statistical importance. No patients from the ABA + IVMP group discontinued ABA whereas, from ABA group, seven patients discontinued the therapy.