The Juvenile Spondyloarthritis Disease Activity Index Is a Useful Tool in Enthesitis-Related Arthritis: Real-Life...

To compare enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) patients with active and inactive disease at 6 months and define baseline predictors for disease inactivity. In addition, to evaluate the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of ERA patients and to identify the real-life impact of the Juvenile Spondyloarthritis Disease Activity Index (JSpADA) in predicting active disease in ERA.

This medical record review study was conducted with 56 patients who were diagnosed with ERA at our clinic between June 2009 and June 2022. Demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, treatment, and JSpADA were recorded.

The patients were divided into 2 groups as active (n = 34) and inactive (n = 22) according to their disease activity at month six. Sex, age at diagnosis, number and type of affected joints, and presence of sacroiliitis were similar in both groups. There was no difference in baseline erythrocyte sedimentation rate, but there was a significant difference in erythrocyte sedimentation rate at the third month ( p = 0.52 and p = 0.018, respectively). The median JSpADA values at disease onset were 3.5 (interquartile range [IQR], 3.0-4.5) and 3.3 (IQR, 2.5-4.0) in the active and inactive groups, respectively ( p = 0.27). At the third month, the median JSpADA values were 1.5 (IQR, 0.5-2.1) in the active group and 0.5 (IQR, 0.5-1.5) in the inactive group ( p = 0.037). The cutoff value for JSpADA at the third month for active disease persisting at the month six was determined as 1 point (area under the curve, 0.662 ± 0.06; p = 0.042; 95% confidence interval, 0.51-0.80) by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

In ERA patients, a persistently high JSpADA value at follow-up is a predictive factor for active disease at the sixth month.