Increased vascular inflammation has been found in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) compared with healthy controls. The significant differences in the target-to-background ratio (TBR) of the aorta on PET/CT pointed to the presence of vascular inflammation in PsA.
A retrospective, Dutch study investigated whether inflammation in patients with PsA may also be present in their vascular system [1]. Vascular inflammation was detected by 18-FDG PET/CT using TBR of the aorta, which has been found to be a reliable and reproducible measure.
The analysis included 75 PsA patients with active peripheral arthritis from an ongoing clinical trial (EudraCT 2017-003900-28) with a median age of 53, a median swollen joint count of 3, and a mean affected body surface area of 1. This cohort was compared with a control group of 40 melanoma patients without distant metastases, who neither had auto-immune disease nor were treated with checkpoint inhibitors. “We found no difference in age, blood pressure, or gender, but patients with PsA had a slightly higher BMI than the control group,” Dr Nienke Kleinrensink (UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands) commented on the baseline characteristics. Both groups comprised about 57% of men, and around 15% had prior cardiovascular disease.
The results showed significantly increased vascular inflammation in PsA versus controls, not only when evaluating the entire aorta (P≤0.001) but also in its 5 different sub-segments. These findings remained significant after a multivariate analysis that corrected for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, including age, sex, BMI, and mean arterial pressure.
“We also measured clinical measures of disease activity such as tender joints count, swollen joints count, enthesitis index, BSA affected psoriasis, and inflammation parameters, but these were not associated with vascular inflammation assessed on PET/CT,” Dr Kleinrensink informed.
In her summary, she said that the study might confirm that in PsA, there is indeed systemic inflammation going on. “It would be very interesting for future studies to assess the effect of PsA treatment on vascular inflammation,” Dr Kleinrensik concluded.
- Kleinrensink NJ, et al. Increased vascular inflammation on PET-CT in psoriatic arthritis patients in comparison with healthy controls. OP0026, EULAR 2023, 31 May–3 June, Milan, Italy.
Copyright ©2023 Medicom Medical Publishers
Posted on
site created by:
© 2024 Medicom Medical Publishers. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy