TOPLINE:

Joint swelling in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) was more likely to recur at the same site as previously swollen joints, a cohort study found.

METHODOLOGY:

• A retrospective cohort study investigated the likelihood of patients with PsA experiencing recurrent joint inflammation (swelling in the same joint after being swelling-free for at least 6 months).
• A total of 492 adults with PsA (mean age, 48 years; 44% men) treated at a medical center in Israel between January 2016 and December 2023 had at least three visits and a mean disease duration of 1 year.
• Clinicians assessed 33,456 joints at baseline and used a standardized joint count to record tenderness in 68 joints and swelling in 66 joints at each visit, with a median follow‑up of six visits.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 85% of patients had at least one swollen joint at baseline. Of all the joints assessed, 4.2% were swollen.
• During follow-up, swelling recurred in 37% of the initially swollen joints.
• A joint swollen at baseline had an increased likelihood of being swollen at follow-up visits (odds ratio, 2.88; P < .001), and the effect varied by joint location.
• Knee joints were most frequently affected at baseline, followed by wrist joints; when the analysis focused on these joints, baseline swelling remained associated with recurrence.

IN PRACTICE:

“The findings indicate that baseline joint swelling is a strong predictor of future swelling in the same joint, raising the question whether targeted joint-specific interventions could complement systemic therapy in select cases, although further research is needed to evaluate their efficacy and impact on overall disease control,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Mark Berman, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. It was published online on September 25, 2025, in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

LIMITATIONS:

The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs at baseline prevented researchers from determining which joints were affected at disease onset. Joint swelling was assessed by physical examination, which may have introduced subjectivity. Missing joint assessments were counted as absence of swelling.

DISCLOSURES:

This study did not receive any specific funding. The authors declared having no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.