Late-onset Psoriatic Arthritis linked to increased cardiovascular risk

Greece: According to a recent study published in Life (Basel) Journal, psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is becoming increasingly common in older people and is associated with an elevated cardiovascular risk.

The study aimed to explore whether late-onset PsA patients, diagnosed at 60 years of age or older, displayed different clinical features, treatment approaches, and comorbidity profiles compared to those diagnosed earlier in life.

The retrospective study collected data from 281 PsA patients who attended two rheumatology centers between December 2017 and December 2022. After controlling for confounders, no demographic and clinical differences were identified at the time of diagnosis between the late-onset and earlier-onset PsA groups.

Late-onset PsA patients (diagnosis age: 60 years) were compared to those diagnosed before the age of 60. Of the total cohort, 14.2% had late-onset PsA.

The study revealed the following clinical takeaways:

1. During the disease course, the late-onset PsA group had 65% fewer odds of manifesting enthesitis (which involves inflammation where tendons and ligaments attach to bones).
2. The late-onset PsA group had a higher frequency of dyslipidemia (which is a condition characterized by abnormal lipid levels in the blood) and major adverse cardiovascular events compared to the earlier-onset PsA group.
3. No differences were found in the treatment approaches between the two groups.
4. In sensitivity analyses, PsA patients diagnosed after 46 years of age had an increased frequency of hypertension and dyslipidemia compared to those diagnosed at or before 46 years of age.

The findings of this study highlight that late-onset PsA is not uncommon and suggest that the age at PsA onset may affect the longitudinal clinical expression of the disease. Patients with late-onset PsA were found to be less likely to manifest enthesitis but displayed an increased cardiovascular risk.

“These findings emphasize the importance of considering the age at PsA onset in routine clinical practice. Further studies with longer follow-ups specifically designed to examine the characteristics of patients with late-onset PsA are needed to better understand the differences in disease expression and comorbidity profiles.” added the researchers of the study.

Reference:

Gialouri, C. G., Evangelatos, G., Iliopoulos, A., Tektonidou, M. G., Sfikakis, P. P., Fragoulis, G. E., & Nikiphorou, E. (2023). Late-Onset Psoriatic Arthritis: Are There Any Distinct Characteristics? A Retrospective Cohort Data Analysis. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 13(3), 792. https://doi.org/10.3390/life13030792