Monthly Oral Ibandronate Reduces Bone Loss in Korean Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteopenia Receiving Long-term Glucocorticoids: A 48-week Double-blinded Randomized Placebo-controlled Investigator-initiated Trial.

PURPOSE: Our aim was to investigate the efficacy of monthly oral ibandronate in Korean women with rheumatoid arthritis and reduced bone mineral density (BMD) receiving long-term glucocorticoids.

METHODS: Patients (n = 167 women) were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive ibandronate 150 mg or placebo every 4 weeks. Patients had taken glucocorticoid (equivalent of daily prednisolone ≥5 mg) for 3 or more consecutive months before enrollment, and had a lumbar spine 1 to 4 (L1-L4) T-score of < -1.0 and ≥ -2.5. Both groups were provided with daily calcium carbonate and cholecalciferol. The primary end point was the L1 to L4 BMD percent changes at 48 weeks compared with baseline.

FINDINGS: Baseline characteristics were comparable between the 2 groups. BMD percent changes in L1 to L4 at 48 weeks were significantly different between the ibandronate versus the placebo group (+3.7% [5.1%] vs -1.9% [4.4%], respectively; P < 0.0001). BMD percent changes at 48 weeks in femur neck and total hip also had similar results (P = 0.0073 and P = 0.0031, respectively). Decrease of serum type 1 collagen C-terminal telopeptide was significant at both 24 and 48 weeks in the ibandronate group. There was no incident of fragility fracture in both groups during the study period. Safety profiles, including adverse events, were comparable between the 2 groups.

IMPLICATIONS: Monthly oral ibandronate for 48 weeks is well tolerated and effective in reducing bone mineral loss in women with rheumatoid arthritis on long-term glucocorticoid therapy. Longer follow-up studies are needed to investigate the benefit of ibandronate on fracture rate reduction in this subset of patients. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01287533.