A comparison of short-term therapeutic efficacy between infliximab and tacrolimus for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis

Introduction. Both infliximab (IFX) and tacrolimus (Tac) are effective for inducing clinical remission in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). However, no randomized study has addressed the relative efficacies of IFX and Tac for patients with moderate to severe UC. This study aimed to conduct a retrospective study on the relative efficacy of IFX and Tac in patients with moderate to severe UC, using an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) technique to adjust background factors statistically. Methods. Between July 2009 and March 2016, data obtained from 122 patients with moderate to severe UC who were treated with either IFX (n = 58) or Tac (n = 64) were analyzed retrospectively. We compared the short-term therapeutic efficacy between the IFX group and Tac group using IPTW technique. Results. The clinical remission rate at 14 weeks after treatment was 37.9% (22/58) in the IFX group and 50% (32/64) in the Tac group, respectively. The efficacy of IFX and Tac for clinical remission rate was not different according to univariate (Odds ratio [OR] 1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80-3.37 P = 0.18) and multivariate analyses (OR 2.19, 95% CI 0.85-5.61, P = 0.10). After the background and confounders factors were adjusted by using IPTW based on propensity score, the efficacy of IFX and Tac for clinical remission rate was not differed statistically (OR, 1.483; 95% CI, 0.581-3.785; P = 0.409) Conclusion. IFX and Tac have equivalent short-term efficacies for induction in patients with moderate to severe UC.