Characteristics of Turkish patients with elderly onset psoriatic arthritis A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflamatory disease characterized with axial and peripheral joints involvement. It rarely affects patients older than 65 years old. The purpose of this study is to compare and evaluate the demographic, clinical and laboratory features of elderly-onset psoriatic arthritis (EOPsA) and young-onset (YOPsA) patients. A total of 180 patients diagnosed with PsA according to CASPAR criteria and followed-up in single center were included in this study. The patients with initial symptoms started after age 65 were accepted as EOPsA. Demographic, clinic, and laboratory data and the medications which the patients received were recorded and retrospectively evaluated. Nineteen (10.5%) of 180 patients were diagnosed as EOPsA, and 161 (89.5%) patients were evaluated as YOPsA. The mean patient age was 42.1years for the YOPsA group and 68.3 years for the elderly onset group. Mean duration of disease was 5.6 years for the early onset group and 1.3 years for the elderly onset group (P=.001). Fourteen (73.3%) of 19 EOPsA patients were female and 5 of them were male. Higher rates of fatique, pain scores, comorbid diseases, and acute phase reactants elevation were detected in EOPsA patients comparing to YOPsA (P=. 000, P=.000, P=.001, and P=.001, respectively). YOPsA patients have more dactilitis, nail involvement, elevated PASI scores, and smoking habitus when compared with EOPsA patients (P=.019, P=.03, P=.005, P=.004, respectively). In terms of the treatment options chosen, there was no significant difference in the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids (CS), methotrexate (MTX), and sulfasalazine (SSL), but there was a more frequent use of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the YOPsA group. YOPsA and EOPsA patients may presented with different clinical and laboratory features. EOPsA patients are characterized with higher rates of fatigue, pain scores, comorbid diseases, and acute phase reactants and less dactilitis, nail involvement, and anti-TNFalpha usage.