The appearance of joint manifestations in the Swiss inflammatory bowel disease cohort

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 30;14(4):e0211554. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211554. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Background/aims: Extraintestinal manifestations (EIM) involving joints, skin, eyes and liver represent an important problem in the treatment of IBD patients. The aim of this study was to identify factors that are associated with the occurrence of joint EIM and therefore allow an early diagnosis and guide medical treatment.

Methods: We studied clinical and epidemiological data from 3298 patients included in the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS), 1860 suffered from Crohn's disease (CD) and 1438 from ulcerative colitis or IBD unclassified (UC/IBDU).

Results: We found female gender as well as a longer disease duration and activity (specified as CDAI or MTWAI, respectively) to be related to the appearance of arthritis/arthralgia, but also sacroiliitis/ankylosing spondylitis in IBD patients. IBD patients with arthritis/arthralgia or sacroiliitis/ankylosing spondylitis were more often treated with anti-TNF and patients with arthritis/arthralgia underwent more often IBD-related surgeries. We revealed that eye or skin EIM were more frequent in patients with arthritis/arthralgia or sacroiliitis/ankylosing spondylitis. In multivariate analysis, we confirmed female gender, longer disease duration, IBD-related surgery, presence of other EIM and treatment with anti-TNF to be independent risk factors for the onset of arthritis/arthralgia in CD and UC/IBDU patients.

Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrated that markers for a more severe disease course were associated with the onset of joint EIM in IBD patients. Our data suggest that in particular females under anti-TNF treatment and patients suffering from non-joint and/or IBD-related surgery should be close and carefully monitored for presence of arthritis or sacroiliitis/ankylosing spondylitis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Arthritis / etiology*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Colitis, Ulcerative / complications*
  • Colitis, Ulcerative / drug therapy
  • Crohn Disease / complications*
  • Crohn Disease / drug therapy
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Risk Factors
  • Sex Factors
  • Spondylitis, Ankylosing / etiology*
  • Switzerland / epidemiology
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

Grants and funding

This work was supported by research grants from the Stiftung Experimentelle Biomedizin to MS, the Swiss National Science Foundation to MS [Grant No. 314730_166381] and to GR for the Swiss IBD Cohort Study [Grant No. 3347CO-108792]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.