“Indeed, here, we demonstrated that patients who have ever suffered from peripheral arthritis at any time during the five years of follow-up period showed poorer quality of life and increased days of sick leave over time,” write the authors. “Despite the evaluation of the clinical relevance of these results as more difficult, the fact that 36.9% of patients without arthritis and 50.2% with arthritis showed an active disease (BASDAI >40) demonstrates the importance of this feature.”
Additionally, patients with arthritis had higher mean levels of Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index and lower Short Form Survey (SF-36) scores, which suggested the patients with arthritis were in worse condition.
Lara C. Pullen, PhD, is a medical writer based in the Chicago area.
Reference
- López-Medina C, Dougados M, Ruyssen-Witrand A, et al. Evaluation of concomitant peripheral arthritis in patients with recent onset axial spondyloarthritis: 5-year results from the DESIR cohort. Arthritis Res Ther. 2019 Jun 6;21(1):139.
