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Patients with PsA tend to have more comorbidities than patients with SpA
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Patients with psoriatic arthritis were more likely to have comorbidities and multiple comorbidities compared to patients with rheumatoid arthritis or spondyloarthritis, according to researchers at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium.
A group of 518 patients enrolled in the Leuven Spondyloarthritis Registry between 2000 and 2012 were studied, including 262 patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and 256 patients with non-PsA spondyloarthritis (SpA). Detailed clinical data were collected annually from patients treated without tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors and every 2 months from patients who received TNF inhibitors. Comorbidities were identified at baseline based on patient history, medication use and clinical examination and included type 1 or 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), depression, hyperlipidemia, malignancy, history of stroke and other conditions. Data analysis included corrections for age, sex, disease duration and medication type and logistic regression was used to eliminate confounding factors.
Overall, 53.66% of patients had at least one comorbidity. Investigators found a greater proportion of patients with comorbidities and more comorbidities in the PsA group. Logistic regression revealed an odds ratio of 1.7 for a comorbidity in patients with PsA. Researchers found 29.77% of patients with PsA had more than one comorbidity compared with 16.4% of patients in the non-PsA SpA group. The most common comorbidity in both groups was CVD. However, more patients in the PsA group had CVD compared with the non-PsA SpA group.
Metabolic diseases were common in both groups, but significantly more patients with PsA met the criteria for metabolic syndrome. In addition, a higher prevalence of metabolic diseases was observed in the group with PsA.
Chi-square analysis showed malignancies were more common in patients with PsA, and this finding remained significant after corrections with logistical regression modeling. Investigators found no differences between patients who received TNF inhibitors compared with patients who received conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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