Renal affection in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis

In a retrospective study of 148 patients with well-defined ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PSA) or reactive arthritis (ReA) an 11% prevalence of idiopathic hematuria, proteinuria, or cylinduria was found in the former two groups. None of the patients with ReA had unexplained pathological urinary findings. Such findings were associated with raised ESR and presence of peripheral arthritis in AS and with the duration of disease in PSA. No patient lacking sacroiliitis showed pathological urinary findings. We believe that such findings may reflect nephropathy associated with AS and PSA.

Coexistence of temporal arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica and rheumatoid arthritis

A patient with biopsy proven temporal arteritis/polymyalgia rheumatica and erosive rheumatoid arthritis is presented. Only 15 such patients have previously been documented in the literature. The coexistence has been thought to be extremely infrequent, but could merely by chance appear in far more patients than previously reported.