Investigating the relationship between disease severity and low bone density in patients with axial spondyloarthropathy

Osteoporosis is a well-known problem in patients with spondyloarthropathy that may begin even in the early stages of the disease and cause debilitating complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between disease severity and low bone density in patients with axial spondyloarthropathy.

In this study, 65 patients with axial spondyloarthropathy were included in the study, and the data including age, gender, BMI, CRP, 25(OH) vit.D, HLAB27, MRI of the sacroiliac joint and bilateral hip, disease duration, disease activity and the last BMD test was extracted from their records and analyzed with statistical software.

Mean (and standard deviation) age, BMI, the duration of the disease, CRP, and ASDAS- CRP were 37.5±5/9 years, 24.7±1.8 kg/m2, 73.9±33.5 months, 14.2±3.2, and 2.2±0.5, respectively. 21.5% of patients had osteoporosis, 90/8% were HLAB27 positive, 78.5% had sacroiliac joint involvement and 66.2% had vitamin D deficiency. Gender (p=0.75), age (p=0.11), involvement of sacroiliac joints (p=0.13) and positive HLAB27 (p=0.75) were not significantly different in patients with and without osteoporosis. While, vitamin D deficiency (p<0.001), BMI (p<0.001), disease duration (p=0.01), CRP (p<0.001), and disease activity (p=0.004) were significantly higher in patients with osteoporosis.

The results of this study showed that disease activity, CRP, disease duration, BMI and vitamin D level are related to osteoporosis in these patients. Therefore, patients who have these risk factors should be prioritized to check bone density.