TNF inhibitors for the long-term management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis: real-life…

Cohort studyExpert opinion on biological therapy· Jun 2026

TNF inhibitors for the long-term management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis: real-life data from the ITHACA cohort.

Achille Marino, Dariush Khaleghi Hashemian, Claudia Iannone … Cecilia Beatrice Chighizola

UveitisCohort studyTreatmentQ1IF 3.3

Infliximab linked to higher risk of treatment change than adalimumab in JIA uveitis.

TNF inhibitors for the long-term management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis: real-life data from the ITHACA cohort.

Achille Marino … Cecilia Beatrice Chighizola

Expert opinion on biological therapy · Jun 2026

Purpose

We assess prescription patterns and describe the long-term real-life effectiveness of different TNF inhibitors (TNFis) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis-related uveitis (JIA-U).

Methods

With JIA-U treated with TNFi were retrospectively enrolled.

Results

infliximab patients were about 3 times more likely to need a treatment switch

HR 3.06 (95% CI 1.41 to 6.63)

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

Adalimumab was the most frequently prescribed TNFi (61%), followed by etanercept (19%), infliximab (15%), and golimumab (5%).

Overall, adalimumab showed the lowest complication rate (51%; p < 0.001) and median number of uveitis relapse (1; IQR 0-2; p = 0.012).

More results

Conversely, etanercept showed the highest median number of uveitis relapses (4; IQR 1-5).

The cumulative incidence curves for 'uveitis relapse' were similar among TNFi.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

All TNFis appear to be effective for long-term management of JIA-U.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

We observed some differences in the number of uveitis relapses and ocular complication rates favoring adalimumab over infliximab and etanercept, findings that need to be further confirmed in prospective studies.

TNF inhibitors for the long-term management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis: real-life data from the ITHACA cohort.

TNF inhibitors for the long-term management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis: real-life data from the ITHACA cohort.

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