• Mihaela Agache, Claudiu C Popescu, Liliana Popa, and Cătălin Codreanu.
• Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2022 Oct 30; 58 (11).

AbstractBackground and objectives: The main objective of the current study was to describe the prevalence of enthesitis at different sites in a group of patients with psoriasis with or without psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Materials and Methods: The study included adult patients with psoriasis who underwent clinical examination, laboratory tests and ultrasound examination of the entheses. The enthesitis ultrasound scores (BUSES, MASEI, GUESS) were evaluated; the presence of OMERACT-defined enthesitis was also recorded for each scan site. Results: The study included 16 (57.1%) patients with PsA and 12 (42.9%) patients with psoriasis, with an increased average body mass index (29.3 kg/m2). Compared to psoriasis patients, PsA patients had a higher prevalence of nail psoriasis (68.8% compared to 33.3%; p = 0.063). There were no significant differences regarding the clinical examination of entheses between patients with psoriasis and patients with PsA (p = 0.459). Ultrasound scores, BUSES, GUESS and MASEI proved to have statistically significant higher median values in PsA patients compared to psoriasis patients. Compared to psoriasis patients, PsA patients had a significantly higher prevalence of OMERACT-defined enthesitis of the quadriceps tendon and inferior patellar ligament (both 81.3% compared to 25.0%, p = 0.003). Clinical examination of the lateral epicondyle and of the superior patellar ligament was consistent with their ultrasound examination (κ = 0.357, p = 0.043, respectively, κ = 0.404, p = 0.008). Conclusions: Clinical enthesitis scores do not differ between psoriasis and PsA patients. All analyzed ultrasound scores are significantly higher in patients with PsA. OMERACT-defined enthesitis has the ability to discriminate sonographic enthesitis between the two subgroups for bilateral quadriceps and inferior patellar tendon enthesitis. Bilateral ultrasound damage of entheses can suggest a PsA diagnosis.

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