ObjectivesIdiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a group of rare disorders that can affect the heart. This work aimed to find predictors of cardiac involvement in IIM.MethodsMulticenter, open cohort study, including patients registered in the IIM module of the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register (Reuma.pt/Myositis) until January 2022. Patients without cardiac involvement information were excluded. Myo(peri)carditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, conduction abnormalities, and/or premature coronary artery disease were considered.Results230 patients were included, 163 (70.9%) of whom were females. Thirteen patients (5.7%) had cardiac involvement. Compared with IIM patients without cardiac involvement, these patients had a lower bilateral manual muscle testing score (MMT) at the peak of muscle weakness [108.0 ± 55.0 vs 147.5 ± 22.0, p=0.008] and more frequently had oesophageal [6/12 (50.0%) vs 33/207 (15.9%), p=0.009] and lung [10/13 (76.9%) vs 68/216 (31.5%), p=0.001] involvements. Anti-SRP antibodies were more commonly identified in patients with cardiac involvement [3/11 (27.3%) vs 9/174 (5.2%), p=0.026]. In the multivariate analysis, positivity for anti-SRP antibodies (OR 104.3, 95% CI: 2.5-4277.8, p=0.014) was a predictor of cardiac involvement, regardless of sex, ethnicity, age at diagnosis, and lung involvement. Sensitivity analysis confirmed these results.ConclusionAnti-SRP antibodies were predictors of cardiac involvement in our cohort of IIM patients, irrespective of demographical characteristics and lung involvement. We suggest considering frequent screening for heart involvement in anti-SRP-positive IIM patients.

Background:Patient’s Global Assessment of Disease Activity (PtGA) and Physician’s Global Assessment of Disease Activity (PhGA) are important measures in the evaluation of patients with Spondyloarthritis (SpA), but often provide discordant results.1Both PtGA and PhGA are assessed as part of ankylosing spondylitis disease activity score (ASDAS), that is a measure of axial SpA disease activity endorsed by the Assessment of SpA International Society (ASAS) and Outcome Measures in Rheumatology.2,3In peripheral SpA, although there are no formally validated indexes, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS 28) response criteria have shown reliable discriminant characteristics and both include PtGA and PhGA.3The lack of concordance between PtGA and PhGA may mislead treatment decisions, namely switches.Objectives:To assess the determinants of patient-physician discordance in SpA patients under biologic treatment.Methods:Cross-sectional study, including 72 with SpA according ASAS criteria. Physicians’ evaluation included comorbidities, parameters of inflammatory activity (erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] and C-reactive protein [CRP], PhGA, ASDAS PCR and, DAS 28, and Participants completed patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and sociodemographic characteristics. For statistical analysis, SPSS was used and significance level was 2-sided p<0.05.Results:Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients are shown in table 1. PtGA and PhGA were significantly different (34.8±21.2vs7.8±12.5 mm, respectively, p< .001) and patient-physician discordance (ΔPtGA - PhGA) was 27.5±14.3 mm.In peripheral SpA, patient-physician discordance had a correlation with patient age, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT), EuroQol-5 dimension (EQ5D), Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36), Hospital Anxiety and Depression scales (HADS), CRP, ESR, number of comorbidities and daily medication, and an association with employment status (employees had lesser discordance), anxiety/depression, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis (OA). In multivariable analysis including employment status, SF-36, OA, number of comorbidities, and ESR (R2adjusted= .505), the main predictors of patient-physician discordance were lower SF36, higher number of comorbidities and employment status.In axial SpA, patient-physician discordance had a correlation with nocturnal back pain and total back pain VAS, FACIT, EQ5D, SF-36, HADS, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Activity Index (BASDAI) scales, age, number of comorbidities and daily medication and an association with employment status (employees had lesser discordance), anxiety/depression and fibromyalgia. In multivariable analysis including employment status, SF-36, fibromyalgia, and number of comorbidities (R2adjusted= .738), the main predictors of patient-physician discordance were lower SF36, higher number of comorbidities and concomitant diagnosis of fibromyalgia.Neither for peripheral SpA nor for axial SpA an association with SpA subtype, HLA-B27 positivity, patient or physician gender, or patient education level was found.Conclusion:This study shows the variability implied in patient-physician discordance. We have demonstrated that comorbidities, employment status, and other factors not directly related to the disease are determinants for the patient-physician discordance.References:[1]Desthieux C, et al. 2016[2]Machado P et al. 2013[3]Mease PJ. 2011Disclosure of Interests:None declared

ObjectiveTo identify risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and for severe/critical COVID-19, and to assess the humoral response after COVID-19 in these patients.MethodsNationwide study of adult patients with inflammatory RMDs prospectively followed in the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register—Reuma.pt—during the first 6 months of the pandemic. We compared patients with COVID-19 with those who did not develop the disease and patients with mild/moderate disease with those exhibiting severe/critical COVID-19. IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were measured ≥3 months after infection and results were compared with matched controls.Results162 cases of COVID-19 were registered in a total of 6,363 appointments. Patients treated with TNF inhibitors (TNFi; OR = 0.160, 95% CI 0.099–0.260, P &lt; 0.001) and tocilizumab (OR 0.147, 95% CI 0.053–0.408, P &lt; 0.001) had reduced odds of infection. Further, TNFi tended to be protective of severe and critical disease. Older age, major comorbidities, and rituximab were associated with an increased risk of infection and worse prognosis. Most patients with inflammatory RMDs (86.2%) developed a robust antibody response. Seroconversion was associated with symptomatic disease (OR 13.46, 95% CI 2.21–81.85, P = 0.005) and tended to be blunted by TNFi (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.03–1.05; P = 0.057).ConclusionsTNFi and tocilizumab reduced the risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. Treatment with TNFi also tended to reduce rates of severe disease and seroconversion. Older age, general comorbidities and rituximab were associated with increased risk for infection and worse prognosis, in line with previous reports. Most patients with RMDs developed a proper antibody response after COVID-19, particularly if they had symptomatic disease.

Background:Osteoarthritis (OA) is frequently regarded by patients and health care providers as a normal consequence of ageing (1). On the other hand, it is well established that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a pathological condition requiring prompt and efficacious treatment and in which remarkable progresses have been achieved in the last decades. Pain and physical limitations are hallmarks of both conditions. Some previous studies suggest that OA and RA may have a similar burden (2,3).Objectives:To compare levels of pain, physical disability and health-related quality of life in patients with primary hand osteoarthritis (hOA) and with RA: active disease (aRA) or in remission (rRA).Methods:Observational cross-sectional study including patients of two clinical centres with hOA and RA, either in remission or with active disease (at least two swollen and/or tender hand joints). Matching for sex and age was performed. Patients were asked to complete a survey consisting of visual analogic scale (VAS) for pain, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and Short Form 36 (SF36). Mean values for each domain were compared between the three groups using one-way ANOVA test with significance accepted for p<.05.Results:Thirty patients with hOA and 93 with RA (33 with aRA and 60 with rRA) were included. All patients were caucasian females with no significant differences in age between groups. Patients with hOA reported higher levels of pain in comparison with aRA patients (mean VAS 57.3vs49.3mm, respectively, p=.265) and with rRA patients (57.3vs28.6mm, respectively, p<.001) [F(2.120)=25.907, p<.001]. Regarding physical function, patients with hOA reported levels of disability similar to rRA patients, but significantly lower disability than patients with aRA [F(2.120)=6.962, p=.001]. Patients with hOA evaluated their quality of life significantly better than patients with aRA and in similar levels to patients with rRA, as measured by mental health and general health status domains of SF36.Conclusion:Our results show that hOA may have similar or even higher burden of pain than RA; this is in line with previous studies, although most of them did not consider the level of inflammatory activity of RA. On the other hand, patients with hOA seem to preserve function and have better health-related quality of life despite the higher levels of pain. These results highlight OA as a cause of severe pain, which should lead us to try an optimal symptom control for these patients. These findings should also encourage rheumatologists to endeavor efforts to perform more studies in the field of OA, to better understand its pathogenesis and to eventually find disease modifying drugs.References:[1]Gignac MAM, Davis AM, Hawker G, Wright JG, Mahomed N, Fortin PR, et al. “What do you expect? You’re just getting older”: A comparison of perceived osteoarthritis-related and aging-related health experiences in middle- and older-age adults. Arthritis Rheum. 2006 Dec 15;55(6):905–12.[2]El-Haddad C, Castrejon I, Gibson KA, Yazici Y, Bergman MJ, Pincus T. MDHAQ/RAPID3 scores in patients with osteoarthritis are similar to or higher than in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study from current routine rheumatology care at four sites. RMD Open. 2017 Jul;3(1):e000391.[3]Slatkowsky-Christensen B, Mowinckel P, Kvien T. Health status and perception of pain: a comparative study between female patients with hand osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Scand J Rheumatol. 2009 Jan;38(5):342–8.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Background:Although spondyloarthritis (SpA) is primarily a musculoskeletal condition, ocular involvement is an important clinical feature and contributes to the burden of disease. Acute anterior uveitis (AAU) is classically described as the most frequent extra-articular manifestation of SpA and in some cases the first clinical presentation. The prevalence of AAU varies according to the subtype of SpA. In a systematic literature review, the mean prevalence of AAU was 32.7% and a positive association between HLA-B27 positivity, axial SpA, male sex and uveitis has been reported (1). More recently, some cross-sectional studies have described lower odds of spondyloarthritis-related uveitis (SpA-U) in smokers than in patients who are ex smokers or never smokers (2). Predictors of SpA-U are poorly defined in literature and the influence of smoking status remains controversial.Objectives:To analyse the factors associated with uveitis in SpA patients in a Tertiary Rheumatology Center.Methods:An observational cross-sectional study was performed including patients fulfilling the ASAS criteria for axial SpA with a follow-up visit between January and June 2019. Clinical patients’ charts were reviewed and the following variables were considered: age, gender, history of uveitis (confirmed by ophthalmologist observation), number of AAU episodes, smoking status (never smoker or ever smoker), HLA-B27, disease duration, disease involvement (exclusively axial or axial and peripheral), history of enthesitis and syndesmophytes. History of AAU and associated variables were determined in this subset of patients.Statistical analysis was performed with logistic regression model. P value <.05 was defined as statistically significant.Results:The study included 164 patients (62.3% men) with median age of 44.0 years (IQR 37 to 54) and a median disease duration of 14.6 years (IQR 9.28 to 20.32). SpA diagnosis was ankylosing spondylitis in 70.7% cases and the remaining were non-radiographic axial SpA. HLA-B27 was positive in 84.8%, 31.1% of patients were ever smokers and 21% had both axial and peripheral joint involvement. Twenty four percent of patients had at least one AAU episode. Recurrence of uveitis occurred in 70% of patients. Ever smoking (OR=2.256; 95%CI [1.077-4.276]; p<.05) and syndesmophytes (OR=2.125; 95%CI [1.009-4.475]; p<.05) showed a statistically significant association with uveitis in univariated logistic regression. Althougth not statistically significant, a trend to association was found between smoking and recurrence of AAU (OR=2.235; 95%ICI [.973-5.135], p=.058). In multivariated logistic regression only ever smoking was independently associated with uveitis (OR=2.542; 95%CI [1.007-6.420]; p<.05). We did not find association between presence of uveitis and gender, age, disease duration, disease involvement, HLA-B27 positivity and enthesitis.Conclusion:Contrary to few cross-sectional studies showing a possible protective effect of smoking in SpA-U, and in line with new data from Zhaoet al(3), we report a statistically significant independent association between history of smoking and uveitis. Nevertheless, we emphasize the need of more studies to confirm these findings.References:[1] Zeboulon N, et al. Prevalence and characteristics of uveitis in the spondyloarthropathies: a systematic literature review. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 2008;67:955.[2] Zhao S, et al. Associations between smoking and extra-axial manifestations and disease severity in axial spondyloarthritis: results from the BSR Biologics Register for Ankylosing Spondylitis (BSRBR-AS). Rheumatology 2018;69.[3] Zhao S, et al. Smoking does not protect patients with axial spondyloarthritis from attacks of uveitis. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 2019;78(9).Disclosure of Interests:None declared