Variability in the prescription of non-biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for the treatment of spondyloarthritis in Spain

Management of particular clinical situations in psoriatic arthritis: an expert's recommendation document based on systematic literature review and extended Delphi process

To establish practical recommendations for the management of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) with particular clinical situations that might lead to doubts in the pharmacological decision-making. A group of six expert rheumatologists on PsA identified particular clinical situations in PsA. Then, a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed to analyse the efficacy and safety of csDMARDs, b/tsDMARDs in PsA. In a nominal group meeting, the results of the SLR were discussed and a set of recommendations were proposed for a Delphi process. A total of 65 rheumatologists were invited to participate in the Delphi. Agreement was defined if ≥ 70% of the participants voted ≥ 7 (from 1, totally disagree to 10, totally agree). For each recommendation, the level of evidence and grade of recommendation was established based on the Oxford Evidence-Based Medicine categorisation. Particular clinical situations included monoarthritis, axial disease, or non-musculoskeletal manifestations. The SLR finally comprised 131 articles. A total of 16 recommendations were generated, all but 1 reached consensus. According to them, it is crucial to carefully analyse the impact of individual manifestations on patients (disability, quality of life, etc.), but also to recognise the impact of each drug singularities on selected clinical phenotypes to adopt the most appropriate treatment strategy. Early diagnosis and treatment to target approach, along with a close risk management, is also necessary. These recommendations are intended to complement gaps in national and international guidelines by helping health professionals address and manage particular clinical situations in PsA.

Variability in the frequency of rheumatology consultations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Spain

The aim of this work was to assess the variability in the use of health-care resources, based on the number of visits to rheumatology departments by rheumatoid arthritis patients, in Spain, and its association with patient, physician and center characteristics. The sample consisted of patient records of men and women (aged 16 or older), with a clinical diagnosis of RA, who met the American Rheumatism Association 1987 revised criteria and who had been treated in a rheumatology department at a Spanish hospital with at least one visit to a rheumatologist during the two years preceding the date of the study. To analyze which variables were independently associated with the number of consultations, those with a statistically significant result in the bivariate analysis, or which were clinically relevant or deemed confounders, were used in the construction of a linear regression model. The records of 1188 RA patients were studied. The linear regression model explained the 26.67 % of the variability in the number of visits. The number of csDMARDs prescribed, the administration of biological therapy, corticoid prescription, the presence of nursing consultation, mean time to first visit in the department and attended population showed a positive significant association, while the presence of telephone consultation, distance from the hospital to the patient´s residence (≥20 km) and drug monitoring by rheumatology department + primary care physician or by other specialists were negatively associated with the number of consultations. We observed a high variability in the number of visits, which remains partially unexplained even after taking into account individual, physician and center characteristics.