AA amyloidosis in inflammatory joint diseases: A systematic review

AA amyloidosis (AAA) is a complication of chronic inflammation; the burden is expected to decrease with recent therapies. We conducted a systematic review of the incidence, prevalence, mortality and response to treatment of inflammatory joint disease (IJD)-related AAA.

MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane library databases were searched until October 2024. Selected studies were prospective and retrospective cohorts as well as case series (≥ 10 patients) of histologically proven AAA occurring in IJD.

From 1094 articles identified, we included 33. Substantial heterogeneity among studies was observed. Most studies (75.8 %) were published before 2010. No clear trend was identifiable in AAA incidence and mortality during the last decades. AAA prevalence rates in rheumatoid arthritis ranged from 16.7 % to 25.2 % before 2010 and decreased to 0.7 % after 2010, which suggests a potential positive role of biologic therapies. Similarly, AAA prevalence rates in ankylosing spondylitis ranged from 6.1 % to 8.5 % before 2010 and 1.1 % to 1.3 % after 2010. Immunomodulating therapies (especially biologics) seemed to improve values of AAA biomarkers, such as glomerular filtration rate and serum amyloid A level.

Our work highlights the need for more recent and comprehensive population-based epidemiological data to decipher the actual IJD-related AAA burden.