User login
BERLIN – Ankylosing spondylitis patients are at sharply increased risk of various forms of acute and chronic renal comorbidity, according to the first population-based study to examine the issue.
The explanation for this elevated renal risk is likely twofold: the well-documented nephrotoxic effects of long-term therapy with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the first-line treatment mainstay in ankylosing spondylitis (AS); and extra-articular manifestations of the disease process itself, according to Adrian R. Levy, Ph.D., of the research firm Oxford Outcomes in Vancouver, B.C.
He presented a retrospective cohort study utilizing Quebec’s administrative physician-billing database. He identified 8,616 individuals with AS in the Canadian province during 1996-2006, and determined their rate of diagnosed renal comorbidities. Then he compared the AS group to a randomly generated sample of 1% of the general Quebec population without AS.
Overall, diagnosed renal complications were present in 3.4% of men and 2.1% of women with AS, compared with 2% and 1.6%, respectively, in the general population. Age- and gender-adjusted prevalence ratios demonstrated significantly excess risks of various forms of renal disease in the AS population, Dr. Levy said at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
The magnitude of the increased risk was greatest in younger patients with AS. For example, the prevalence ratio for any of the renal conditions under study was 2.4-fold greater among 20- to 39-year-old men with AS than controls, but only 1.5-fold greater in AS patients over age 60.
The clinical implications are clear, Dr. Levy emphasized: Close and careful monitoring for renal complications is de rigueur in individuals with AS, especially if they are on long-term, full-dose, continuous NSAID therapy.
The study was funded by Abbott.
BERLIN – Ankylosing spondylitis patients are at sharply increased risk of various forms of acute and chronic renal comorbidity, according to the first population-based study to examine the issue.
The explanation for this elevated renal risk is likely twofold: the well-documented nephrotoxic effects of long-term therapy with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the first-line treatment mainstay in ankylosing spondylitis (AS); and extra-articular manifestations of the disease process itself, according to Adrian R. Levy, Ph.D., of the research firm Oxford Outcomes in Vancouver, B.C.
He presented a retrospective cohort study utilizing Quebec’s administrative physician-billing database. He identified 8,616 individuals with AS in the Canadian province during 1996-2006, and determined their rate of diagnosed renal comorbidities. Then he compared the AS group to a randomly generated sample of 1% of the general Quebec population without AS.
Overall, diagnosed renal complications were present in 3.4% of men and 2.1% of women with AS, compared with 2% and 1.6%, respectively, in the general population. Age- and gender-adjusted prevalence ratios demonstrated significantly excess risks of various forms of renal disease in the AS population, Dr. Levy said at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
The magnitude of the increased risk was greatest in younger patients with AS. For example, the prevalence ratio for any of the renal conditions under study was 2.4-fold greater among 20- to 39-year-old men with AS than controls, but only 1.5-fold greater in AS patients over age 60.
The clinical implications are clear, Dr. Levy emphasized: Close and careful monitoring for renal complications is de rigueur in individuals with AS, especially if they are on long-term, full-dose, continuous NSAID therapy.
The study was funded by Abbott.
BERLIN – Ankylosing spondylitis patients are at sharply increased risk of various forms of acute and chronic renal comorbidity, according to the first population-based study to examine the issue.
The explanation for this elevated renal risk is likely twofold: the well-documented nephrotoxic effects of long-term therapy with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the first-line treatment mainstay in ankylosing spondylitis (AS); and extra-articular manifestations of the disease process itself, according to Adrian R. Levy, Ph.D., of the research firm Oxford Outcomes in Vancouver, B.C.
He presented a retrospective cohort study utilizing Quebec’s administrative physician-billing database. He identified 8,616 individuals with AS in the Canadian province during 1996-2006, and determined their rate of diagnosed renal comorbidities. Then he compared the AS group to a randomly generated sample of 1% of the general Quebec population without AS.
Overall, diagnosed renal complications were present in 3.4% of men and 2.1% of women with AS, compared with 2% and 1.6%, respectively, in the general population. Age- and gender-adjusted prevalence ratios demonstrated significantly excess risks of various forms of renal disease in the AS population, Dr. Levy said at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
The magnitude of the increased risk was greatest in younger patients with AS. For example, the prevalence ratio for any of the renal conditions under study was 2.4-fold greater among 20- to 39-year-old men with AS than controls, but only 1.5-fold greater in AS patients over age 60.
The clinical implications are clear, Dr. Levy emphasized: Close and careful monitoring for renal complications is de rigueur in individuals with AS, especially if they are on long-term, full-dose, continuous NSAID therapy.
The study was funded by Abbott.
AT THE ANNUAL EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF RHEUMATOLOGY