Comorbidity, Cardiovascular Burden Elevated in Early Psoriatic Arthritis

Patients with early psoriatic arthritis (PsA) had double the odds of having multiple comorbidities or multiple cardiovascular risk factors compared with healthy control subjects, according to a study published online ahead of print in Arthritis Care & Research.

“Our data imply that PsA patients have higher comorbidities and cardiovascular burden already at early stages of the disease, suggesting that these are not only a consequence of long-lasting disease and chronic systemic inflammation,” wrote corresponding author Kurt de Vlam, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, and study coauthors.

The observational multicenter study compared comorbidities, cardiovascular risk factors, and other characteristics in 67 patients with newly diagnosed PsA and 61 healthy controls matched for sex and age. Patients with PsA were also re-evaluated 1 year later as disease activity changed.

Cardiovascular risk factors were present in 82.1% of patients with early PsA and 62.3% of healthy controls, according to the study. The odds ratio of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with early PsA was 1.6 compared with controls.

Odds ratios were 1.9 for multiple comorbidities and 2.1 for multiple cardiovascular risk factors in patients with early PsA compared with controls. The most prevalent comorbidity in early PsA was dyslipidemia, which affected nearly two-thirds of patients. The obesity rate was 40.3% among patients with early PsA, who had an average body mass index of 28.82, compared with an 18.3% obesity rate among controls. The duration of skin psoriasis in patients was not associated with comorbidities or cardiovascular risk in patients with early PsA.

“After 1 year, although disease activity scores improved, the proportion of patients having comorbidities [or] cardiovascular risk factors did not increase or drop,” researchers reported.

Reference:
Ishchenko A, Pazmino S, Neerinckx B, Lories R, de Vlam K. Comorbidities in early psoriatic arthritis: data from METAPSA cohort study. Arthritis Care Res. Published online September 5, 2023. doi:10.1002/acr.25230