PARIS — Sacroiliitis is an often-underappreciated hallmark of psoriatic arthritis, according to Dr. Augustin Sellas of Vall d'Hebron Hospital, Barcelona.
Peripheral joint disease in psoriatic arthritis patients draws considerable physician attention.
But sacroiliitis is highly prevalent as well, he noted at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
Dr. Sellas retrospectively reviewed x-rays of 128 PsA patients, 51% of whom had radiographic evidence of sacroiliitis.
The prevalence was similar in men and women. Sacroiliitis was bilateral in 47 of 65 affected patients, or 72%.
Seventeen percent of psoriatic arthritis patients were HLA-B27 positive. Sacroiliitis was present in three-quarters of this subgroup, with all but one case being bilateral.
The reported prevalence of sacroiliitis in PsA patients has ranged from 30% to 78% in other studies, said Dr. Sellas.