Using Radiofrequency Echographic Multi-spectrometry in the Follow-Up of Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis and...

Spondyloarthritis comprises a group of diseases with similar clinical, paraclinical, and imagistic findings. Another common element in this group is its association with osteoporosis and increased bone fragility, which can have dire consequences on the quality of life of these patients.

A prospective study was performed in order to evaluate the bone density and fragility parameters offered by radiofrequency echographic multi-spectrometry (REMS). A group of 70 patients, 49 with axial spondyloarthritis and 21 with psoriatic arthritis, were evaluated using REMS and followed up at one year to see if there is any modification of bone mineral density (BMD), T scores, and of the fragility score (FS) under treatment.

Both groups showed slightly improved values for BMD and T-scores, with significant improvement for BMD in both groups with p<0.001, with an maximum increase of 0.03 g/cm² in the lumbar site and 0.02 g/cm² in the femoral site, while no statistical significance was observed for T-scores, p=0.619 for lumbar spine and p=0.93 for the femoral examinations under biological therapy and combined conventional and biological treatments. A more impressive outcome was seen in the same treatment group regarding the improvement of the FS in these groups (with a mean score reduction of 11.11, p<0.001).

REMS is a method that need to be further studied in axial spondyloarthritis and psoriatic arthritis in order to describe it's usefulness in these specific pathologies. FS can be a useful tool in assessing bone health under different treatment conditions. Although improvement was seen in all markers under biological treatment and combined treatment, the most favourable results were observed in patients under biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD) and combined conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (csDMARD) and bDMARD therapies.