Monitoring osteoporosis therapy: Can FRAX help assessing success or failure in achieving treatment goals?

Consensus evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treat-to-target management of osteoporosis in Africa: an initiative by the African Society of Bone Health and Metabolic Bone Diseases

The objective of this consensus statement is to inform the clinical practice communities, research centres and policymakers across Africa of the results of the recommendations for osteoporosis prevention, diagnosis and management. The developed guideline provides state-of-the-art information and presents the conclusions and recommendations of the consensus panel regarding these issues.

PURPOSE

To reach an African expert consensus on a treat-to-target strategy, based on current evidence for best practice, for the management of osteoporosis and prevention of fractures.

METHOD

A 3-round Delphi process was conducted with 17 osteoporosis experts from different African countries. All rounds were conducted online. In round 1, experts reviewed a list of 21 key clinical questions. In rounds 2 and 3, they rated the statements stratified under each domain for its fit (on a scale of 1-9). After each round, statements were retired, modified or added in view of the experts' suggestions and the percent agreement was calculated. Statements receiving rates of 7-9 by more than 75% of experts' votes were considered as achieving consensus.

RESULTS

The developed guidelines adopted a fracture risk-centric approach. Results of round 1 revealed that of the 21 proposed domains, 10 were accepted whereas 11 were amended. In round 2, 32 statements were presented: 2 statements were retired for similarity, 9 statements reached consensus, whereas modifications were suggested for 21 statements. After the 3rd round of rating, the experts came to consensus on the 32 statements. Frequency of high-rate recommendation ranged from 83.33 to 100%. The response rate of the experts was 100%. An algorithm for the osteoporosis management osteoporosis was suggested.

CONCLUSION

This study is an important step in setting up a standardised osteoporosis service across the continent. Building a single model that can be applied in standard practice across Africa will enable the clinicians to face the key challenges of managing osteoporosis; furthermore, it highlights the unmet needs for the policymakers responsible for providing bone health care together with and positive outcomes of patients' care.

Co-morbidity index in rheumatoid arthritis: time to think

Rheumatoid arthritis patients are clinically complex, and the interplay of their disease activity together with the other associated conditions may lead to increased morbidity and mortality. The recent advances in the disease management attracted the attention to its associated co-morbidities and highlighted the need for a tool to provide clinicians and potential payers with a clinically powerful measure of the disease burden and prognosis. Predicting outcome or co-morbidity probability has been previously implemented successfully for calculating 10-year fracture probability (FRAX) as well as for predicting 1-year patient mortality using co-morbidity data obtained (Charlson index). Developing a specific rheumatoid arthritis-independent tool able to predict morbidity, mortality, cost and hospitalization would be a step forward on the way to achieve full disease remission. The co-morbidity index should be used both at baseline as well as a continuous variable in analyses. It should be implemented regularly in the clinical assessment as a confounder of outcomes. This article will review the redefined health outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis and the concept of co-morbidity index for patients with inflammatory arthritis. It will also present a proposed co-morbidity index for rheumatoid arthritis patients.