PULMONARY MANIFESTATIONS DURING SPONDYLARTHRITIS

Introduction: Pleuropulmonary involvement in spondylarthritis has long been considered a rare and late manifestation of this group of diseases because of its asymptomatic nature and the failure of chest X-ray to detect early lung injury. However, with the advent of CT scanning, a wide variety of sub-clinical lung lesions that were not detectable on standard radiography have been objectified. Objectives: Research the correlations between lung involvement and the different characteristics and types of spondylarthritis. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective cohort-type observational epidemiological study, conducted over a 3-year period. 133 patients with spondylarthritiswere included. All had a detailed clinical examination, chest X-ray, respiratory function tests and chest CT scan. Results: 133 patients with spondyloarthropathies; 57 spondyloarthritis, 54 psoriatic arthritis and 22 IBD-associated spondyloarthritis. M/F sex ratio of 1.14. Chest CT scan revealed abnormalities in 58 patients (43.6%) with 13 symptomatic respiratory patients, whereas the standard chest X-ray was abnormal in only 19 cases. Multivariate analysis showed factors associated with CT abnormalities in patients over 60 years of age, with dactylitis, and cervical stiffness. Factors associated with ventilatory abnormalities have also been found in patients over 60 years of age, cervical stiffness, coxitis, inflammatory syndrome, and osteoporosis. No influence of the type of spondylitis was found on the presence or type of lung involvement (p=0.230). Conclusion: This study allowed us to detect certain factors associated with lung damage, revealed early on thoracic CT and EFR, in patients with SpA. It would be judicious to propose this examination in patients with functional respiratory signs even if the standard radiography is normal, even for a wider screening in any SpA patient even asymptomatic.