Distribution of comorbidities in spondyloarthritis with regard to the phenotype and psoriasis: data from the ASAS-COMOSPA study

The aim of the study was to compare the prevalence of comorbidities between patients with axial and peripheral phenotypes and to evaluate the role of psoriasis in such comorbidities.

Patients from the cross-sectional Assessment in SpondyloArthritis Inter-national Society (ASAS)-COMOSPA study were classified as having either the axial (presence of sacroiliitis on X-ray or MRI) or peripheral phenotype (absence of sacroiliitis AND presence of peripheral involvement). Patients with each phenotype were divided into two groups depending on the presence or history of psoriasis. Pair-wise comparisons among the four groups (axial/peripheral phenotype with/without psoriasis) were conducted through univariate logistic regressions and generalized linear mixed models using disease duration and sex as fixed effects and country as random effect.

A total of 3291 patients were included in this analysis. The peripheral involvement with psoriasis phenotype showed the highest prevalence of hypertension (44.9%), dyslipidaemia (34%) and diabetes (8.8%), while the axial involvement without psoriasis phenotype exhibited the lowest prevalence of dyslipidaemia (14.2%), diabetes (4.1%) and stroke (0.9%). Among patients with psoriasis, the axial phenotype showed a significantly lower prevalence of hypertension (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.35-0.75) and lower prevalence of Framingham score ⩾15 (OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.38-0.85) than patients with peripheral involvement after adjusting for disease duration, sex and country. Among patients with the axial phenotype, patients with psoriasis showed a higher prevalence of hypertension (OR 1.76, 1.40-2.20), dyslipidaemia (OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.56-2.53), diabetes (OR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.39-3.02) and Framingham score ⩾15 (OR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.57-2.55) than non-psoriatic patients. No differences were found across groups concerning bone metabolism disorders.

Both the peripheral phenotype and psoriasis are independently associated with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. No differences were found for bone metabolism disorders.