Males with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have a higher incidence of sonographic enthesitis than women with PsA, according to a study published in The Journal of Rheumatology. Ari Polachek, MD, and colleagues recruited patients with PsA (N=158; CASPAR criteria) who underwent physical and clinical examinations. An ultrasound (US) evaluation (gray scale and Doppler) of 14 points of entheses, 40 tendons, and 52 joints was performed by an experienced sonographer blinded to the clinical data. US score was based upon the summation of a semi-quantitative score for enthesitis, synovitis, and tenosynovitis and was categorized as inflammatory or structural. Males had higher Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores (P=0.04), higher rates of employment (P=0.01), and higher mean swollen joint counts (P=0.04). The total enthesitis score and its subcategory, the inflammatory enthesitis score, were notably higher for males compared with females (P=0.01 and P=0.005, respectively). Enthesophytes, thickening, and hypo echogenicity were also more common in males compared with females (P<0.05).
Patients With SLE Have Greater Healthcare Utilization Than Those Without
Compared with patients without systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), those with SLE are more likely to be hospitalized and to visit the ED, according to a study published in The Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. Alí Duarte-García, MD, MSc, and colleagues conducted a population-based cohort study of patients (N=341) fulfilling the European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology SLE classification criteria from1995-2018. Patients with SLE were age-, sex-, and county-matched with individuals without SLE (N=341). All hospital admissions and ED visits were electronically retrieved for 1995-2020. Dr. Duarte-García and team compared rates for hospital admission, ED visits, length of stay, readmission, and discharge destination between groups. For patients with SLE and comparators, hospitalization rates were 29.8 and 9.9 per 100 person-years, respectively. In
patients with SLE after diagnosis, hospitalization rates were higher and remained higher than for controls for the first 15 years. Compared with controls, patients with SLE were more likely to visit the ED (HR, 2.71; 95% CI, 2.05–3.59), and had higher readmission rates (32% vs 21%; P=0.017).
