The Association of Psoriatic Arthritis With All-cause Mortality and Leading Causes of Death in Psoriatic Arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and all-cause mortality from a large population-based database. METHODS: Patients with PsA from the Clalit Health Services database were identified between 2003-2018 and matched to 4 controls by age, sex, ethnicity, and index date. Patient demographics, comorbidities, and treatments were extracted. Mortality data were obtained from the Israeli Notification of Death certificate. The proportionate mortality rate (PMR) of the leading causes of death was calculated and compared to that of the general population. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate the crude and the multivariate adjusted HR for the association between PsA and all-cause mortality and for factors associated with mortality within the PsA group. RESULTS: There were 5275 patients with PsA and 21,011 controls included and followed for 7.2 ± 4.4 years. The mean age was 51.7 ± 15.4 years, and 53% were females. Among patients with PsA, 38.2% were on biologics. Four hundred seventy-one (8.9%) patients died in the PsA group compared to 1668 (7.9%) in the control group. The crude HR for the association of PsA and all-cause mortality was 1.16 (95% CI 1.04-1.29) and 1.02 (95% CI 0.90-1.15) on multivariate analysis. Malignancy was the leading cause of death (26%), followed by ischemic heart disease (15.8%); this is in keeping with the leading causes of death in the general population. Older age, male sex, lower socioeconomic status, increased BMI, increased Charlson comorbidity index scores, and history of psoriasis or hospitalization in 1 year prior to entry were positive predictors for mortality. CONCLUSION: No clinically relevant increase in mortality rate was observed in patients with PsA, and specific PMRs were similar to those of the general population.

Wegener granulomatosis with back pain, periaortitis, and dural inflammation developing while receiving monthly cyclophosphamide.

A 61-year-old white man was admitted to our department because of severe back and upper abdominal pain of 1 month's duration. The patient was diagnosed with Wegener granulomatosis 10 months before the presentation based on chronic otitis media, hoarseness, and hemoptysis; positive c-ANCA; and laryngeal and lung biopsies showing multinucleated giant cells. The patient was treated with monthly injections of cyclophosphamide (1-1.5 g per month) and 80 mg prednisone daily with rapid improvement. Prednisone dose was tapered off and 1 month before the present admission, the patient developed severe low back pain. Extensive workup, including abdominal computed axial tomography scan, computed tomography angiography, magnetic resonance image of the spinal cord, and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan, revealed 2 periaortic soft tissue structures seen at the level of L3 and at the level of the celiac trunk and linear meningeal thickening of the spinal cord at the level of D4-8. All these structures showed strong signal on FDG-PET scan. Treatment with methylprednisolone (1000 mg/d) for 3 consecutive days followed by 80 mg prednisone per day and 100 mg cyclophosphamide per day was started with rapid attenuation of the patient's symptoms. This case describes the clinical course of the rare complication of Wegener granulomatosis, periaortitis, and dural inflammation despite monthly cyclophosphamide and demonstrates the role of magnetic resonance imaging and FDG-PET in their diagnosis.