A systematic review and meta-analysis presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2021 Convergence reveals that patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have a similar risk of vertebral fracture as others with inflammatory rheumatic diseases.

Presented by Patompong Ungprasert, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic, the abstract noted that the “increased risk of vertebral fracture (VF) has been documented in several autoimmune diseases as a result of excessive inflammatory burden and use of corticosteroids. The risk is well-established in several autoimmune diseases with high inflammatory burden, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. However, the risk among patients with autoimmune diseases of less inflammatory burden, including psoriatic arthritis (PsA), is unclear.”

The investigators searched the MEDLINE and EMBASE database from inception to December 2020 for cohort studies with at least one cohort of patients with PsA and one cohort without PsA that compared the prevalence of vertebral fractures between the groups.  

“A total of 26,090 articles were identified. After two rounds of independent review by three investigators, five cohort studies met the eligibility criteria and were included into the meta-analysis,” the authors explained. “PsA is significantly associated with VF with the pooled odds ratio of 2.09 (95% CI, 1.11 – 3.96; I2 70%).”

They concluded that patients with PsA were found to carry “a significantly increased risk of prevalent VF."

—Rebecca Mashaw

Reference:

Ungprasert P, Nipith Charoenngam N, Ponvilawan B, et al. Increased risk of vertebral fracture among patients with psoriatic arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Presented at: American College of Rheumatology Convergence 2021; November 5-9, 2021; virtual. Abstract 1304.