Patient characteristics, diagnostic testing, and initial treatment profiles of patients with connective tissue disease-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension using a Japanese claims database

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objectives To investigate the diagnostic and therapeutic landscape for patients with connective tissue disease (CTD) and CTD-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (CTD-PAH) in acute-care general hospitals in Japan. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study by analysing the Medical Data Vision (MDV) database from April 2008 to September 2020. CTD patients who prescribed immunosuppressants were included in cohort 1, and CTD-PAH patients extracted from cohort 1 were included in cohort 2. Patient characteristics, diagnostic screening frequencies for PAH, and initial PAH-specific treatment patterns were assessed. Results Overall, 16,648 patients with CTD and 81 patients with CTD-PAH were included in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. The frequencies of screening tests for PAH, including brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE), and ‘diffusing capacity’ of the ‘lungs for carbon monoxide’ (DLCO), among CTD patients were 0.7, 0.3, and 0.1 tests/person-year, respectively. The most common initial PAH-specific treatment therapy was monotherapy (87.7%), followed by dual therapy (7.4%) and triple therapy (2.5%). Conclusion This is the first study to describe the patient flow from PAH diagnosis to initial PAH-specific treatment for real-world patients who were followed regularly due to CTD in Japanese clinical practice.