Many pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can achieve low disease activity in the third trimester with a modern treatment regimen that includes anti-TNF medications, a study suggests.

Researchers examined data on 309 patients with RA who were pregnant or trying to conceive and undergoing a treat-to-target medication regimen that included anti-TNF medications as well as low-dose prednisone and disease-modifying antirheumatic agents.

They compared outcomes for this group of women to results from a historic reference cohort of women treated from 2002-10.

In the modern treatment cohort, 75% of women were in remission or had low disease activity before pregnancy, and this rose to 90% during pregnancy.