Introduction:

Spondyloarthritis is a group of chronic inflammatory diseases that mainly affect the axial skeleton, and also the peripheral joints. In bone metabolism studies on these patients, it has been observed that there are lower levels of vitamin D in patients with spondyloarthritis.

Objective:

To estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency / insufficiency, as well as calcium/ phosphate metabolism and their implications in a cohort of patients with spondyloarthritis.

Methodology:

Observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. A retrospective review of the databases was carried out on patients with spondyloarthritis who were treated in the outpatient clinics of the Rheumatology Department of the General University Hospital of Ciudad Real between June 2018 and June 2019. Variables are described using frequency and central tendency / dispersion measurements as appropriate.

Results:

The study included 115 patients, of whom 64 were men and 51 women, with a mean age of 45.97 years (± 13.41 SD). They included 59 patients with ankylosing spondylitis, 24 with psoriatic arthropathy, 9 arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease, 12 non-radiographic axial spondylarthritis, and 11 reactive arthritis. Vitamin D levels were 23.81 ng/ml (± 10.5 SD), with 77.4% of patients with vitamin D deficiency / insufficiency levels. Grouped by the spondylarthritis subtype, and according to vitamin D deficiency / insufficiency, 45 patients had ankylosing spondylitis, 19 psoriatic arthropathy, 9 arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease, 7 non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, and 9 reactive arthritis. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency (< 20 ng/ml) mainly occurred in the spring and winter seasons, with 31 and 26 patients, respectively.

Conclusions:

An optimization of vitamin D levels may lead to an improvement in the clinical situation of the patients, as measured by both BASDAI and DAPSA, as well as by PCR and ESR. Therefore, vitamin D monitoring and supplementation is recommended in patients with vitamin D deficiency.

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