Dickkopf-1 is associated with periarticular bone loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: To examine whether cytokines shown to suppress osteoblasts, Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), are associated with periarticular bone loss in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: RA patients with short disease duration were prospectively followed and hand bone mineral density was assessed by digital X-ray radiogram- metry (DXR) at baseline and after 1, 2 and 5 years. Plasma samples collected at baseline from 136 of the included pa- tients were analyzed for HGF and DKK1. Group comparisons, correlation analyses and multivariate analyses were per- formed to evaluate the relationship between baseline cytokine levels and DXR-BMD. Results: Patients with hand bone loss after 1 year had significantly higher baseline plasma levels of DKK1 than patients without bone loss. Patients with periarticular bone loss after 2 and 5 years had significantly higher baseline plasma levels of HGF. Baseline DKK1 but not HGF levels were independently associated with periarticular bone loss after 1 year. Conclusion: High serum levels of DKK1 are weakly but independently associated with periarticular bone loss in RA. The importance of DKK1 and HGF for loss of periarticular bone needs to be defined in future studies.Copyright © 2013 Berit Grandaunet et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Osteoporosis in psoriatic arthritis: A cross-sectional study of an outpatient clinic population

Background The risk of osteoporosis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) still remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip and lumbar spine measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in patients with PsA. Methods From an outpatient clinic in southern Norway, 140 patients with PsA were consecutively recruited and assessed for osteoporosis as part of a prospective study from January 2013 to May 2014. An extensive data collection was performed including demographic data and measures reflecting disease activity and health status. Results Mean age was 52.4 years and 71 (50.7%) were women. Median disease duration was 7.8 years. The proportion of patients with low BMD (defined as Z score≤−1.0 SD) was comparable to the expected value of 16%, according to the normal distribution of the Z score in the population. Osteoporosis was only found in 6.4% (95% CI3% to 11%) of the patients. No significant associations were found between BMD and disease activity measures. Conclusion The prevalence of PsA patients with osteoporosis or low BMD was low and in the range seen in the reference population. This supports that patients with PsA are not at high risk for osteoporosis compared with the general population. Therefore, clinicians may follow the general population guidelines for monitoring of osteoporosis for patients with PsA.publishedVersion© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0