Inflammation in the posterior elements, in particular the facet joint and facet joint ankylosis over 2-year follow-up in radiographic axial spondyloarthritis.
RMD Open
; 10(2)2024 Jun 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38851237
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To assess the association of posterior element (PE) and facet joint (FJ) inflammation with subsequent new FJ ankylosis (FJA) on MRI, in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA).METHODS:
Patients from the Sensitive Imaging in Ankylosing Spondylitis cohort, inclusion criteria r-axSpA and ≥1 radiographic spinal syndesmophyte, were studied. MRI of the full spinal was performed at baseline, 1 and 2 years. PE/FJ inflammatory lesions and FJA were assessed per vertebral unit (VU) level by three readers. With multilevel time-lagged autoregressive generalised estimated equations, the association between PE/FJ inflammation and the subsequent development of FJA was investigated, taking the reader and VU levels into account.RESULTS:
Out of the 58 patients with at least 2 reader scores available, mean age 49 (SD 10) years, 84% men, 59% had baseline PE inflammation, 24% had FJ inflammation and 26% had FJA. PE inflammation was more prevalent in the lower thoracic spine and FJ inflammation in the upper thoracic spine. VU with PE or FJ inflammation showed subsequent new FJA in two and one VU levels, respectively. The probability of developing FJA doubled with prior FJ inflammation. In multilevel analysis, FJ inflammation was associated with subsequent FJA (OR=3.8, 95% CI 1.5 to 9.8), while no association was found between PE inflammation and new FJA (OR=1.2 (0.6-2.4)).CONCLUSIONS:
FJ inflammation is rare in severe r-axSpA, but when present, the likelihood of developing subsequent FJA is over three times higher compared with FJ without inflammation. This finding contributes to the understanding of the relationship between inflammation and ankylosis at the same anatomical location in patients with axSpA.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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Zygapophyseal Joint
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Axial Spondyloarthritis
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Inflammation
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Ankylosis
Limits:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
RMD Open
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: