Spondyloarthritis & psoriatic arthritis
Patterns of spinal new bone formation in patients with axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls: a low-dose CT study
Authors' conclusion
AxSpA exhibited a distinct NBF pattern characterised by frequent marginal syndesmophytes, particularly in the thoracic spine. In contrast, the most prevalent findings in the other groups were osteophytes, and no consistent NBF pattern was observed to distinguish the groups from each other.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and HC without a history of chronic back pain (33 females, mean age 51.4 years)33 females
- Participants
- 69 patients
- Exposure
- axSpA vs PsA vs RA vs healthy controls
- AxSpAn = 30
- PsAn = 19
- RAn = 10
- HCn = 10reference
- Outcome
- Frequency and localisations of spinal new bone formation (marginal syndesmophytes, non-marginal syndesmophytes, osteophytes) on low-dose CT (ldCT)
Methodological detailslow-dose CT of the entire spine, three readers blinded to all clinical information
- Low-dose CT of the entire spine
- Three readers blinded to all clinical information
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Across all groups, the thoracic spine showed the highest number of new bone formation (NBFs), especially marginal syndesmophytes and osteophytes
- On sagittal images, NBF of any type occurred predominantly at the anterior vertebral corners
- Coronal images showed right-sided dominance of NBFs, particularly osteophytes and non-marginal syndesmophytes; marginal syndesmophytes almost equally distributed
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Inter-reader reliability for detecting any type of NBF (sagittal and coronal)
- High inter-reader reliability for almost all groups (intraclass correlation coefficient)
- >0.9
Original publication
Patterns of spinal new bone formation in patients with axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls: a low-dose CT study. RMD Open. Published 20 January 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →