medwireNews: Findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that patients with radiographic and nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) have a comparable burden of disease.
In their analysis of data from 60 studies, Clementina López-Medina (Hospital Cochin, Paris, France) and team found that patients with radiographic axSpA (also known as ankylosing spondylitis) had similar average BASDAI, VAS pain, Patient Global Assessment, and quality of life scores to those with nonradiographic disease. Treatment modalities were also comparable among the two groups, and there were no significant differences in treatment efficacy.
However, patients with radiographic disease had significantly longer disease duration on average than those with the nonradiographic form (8.6 vs 5.0 years), as well as higher disease activity measured by C-reactive protein (average 9.3 vs 6.2 mg/dL), and a greater degree of structural damage on magnetic resonance imaging.
“All these data suggest that [radiographic] axSpA and [nonradiographic] axSpA present differences mainly related to the factors that will lead or have led to structural damage, but that the burden of the disease and clinical presentation are essentially similar,” write the study authors in RMD Open.
They add that their findings support “the concept of axSpA as one disease,” and recommend that “patients with both [radiographic] axSpA and [nonradiographic] axSpA should be treated with equal priority.”
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