Impact of sex on clinical outcomes, treatment exposure, and spinal radiographic progression over a 10-year follow-up in axial spondyloarthritis
Abstract format and assignment number: Oral presentation OP0101
Presenting author: D. Sahin (Germany)
525 patients from the German GESPIC Inception cohort were followed for 10 years. In adjusted GEE models, males had lower disease activity (ASDAS, BASDAI, PGA) and less enthesitis but worse spinal mobility (BASMI). Treatment exposure was similar except lower glucocorticoid use in males. Crucially, males showed substantially greater radiographic progression (≥2 mSASSS units OR 2.08; new syndesmophytes OR 1.90), revealing a dissociation between symptoms and structural damage.
An interdisciplinary model to improve access to rheumatology care and promote early identification for axSpA: preliminary results of the FASTRAX study
Abstract format and assignment number: Oral presentation OP0142-HPR
Presenting author: L. Passalent (Canada)
This Ontario screening model uses ACPAC (Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care)-trained extended-scope providers and rheumatology fellows as front-line screeners. Among 179 patients across three sites, median wait time was 28 days and 41 (22.9%) were diagnosed with axSpA. Screener sensitivity was 90.2%, specificity 76.6%. The number needed to screen fell from a historical 20 to 5, with wide reach including rural and remote regions.
Risk of cancer according to duration of targeted therapy exposure in spondyloarthritis: a nationwide cohort study from the French health insurance database
Abstract format and assignment number: Oral presentation OP0238
Presenting author: K. Tankovic (France)
Using the SNDS (Système National des Données de Santé, the French national health insurance database covering approx. 67 million inhabitants), 56,591 SpA patients initiating targeted therapy were followed with weighted Cox marginal structural models. Exposure >6 months/year was associated with reduced overall cancer risk (wHR 0.86), significant for hematological malignancies (wHR 0.65) but not solid cancers. Findings were consistent across sensitivity analyses, providing reassuring long-term safety data.
High specificity but modest sensitivity of the 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN revised axSpA classification criteria in early axSpA: data from the SPACE cohort
Abstract format and assignment number: Oral presentation OP0239
Presenting author: L. de Bruin (Netherlands)
The SPACE cohort enrolled 669 early chronic-back-pain patients (53% axSpA). The new 2025 ASAS-SPARTAN criteria were highly specific (>94%) but less sensitive than the 2009 ASAS criteria, especially with central reading (34.7–51.7% vs 70.4–78.1%). About 27% of axSpA patients captured by 2009 criteria were excluded, mainly because fewer were classified on clinical features alone, reflecting the new criteria’s emphasis on imaging.
EULAR recommendations for the use of imaging in the diagnosis and management of spondyloarthritis in clinical practice – 2025 update
Abstract format and assignment number: Poster POS0682
Presenting author: P. Mandl (Austria)
Built from two systematic reviews (181 studies) by 26 experts, this update yielded 3 new overarching principles, 9 updated and 1 new recommendation, with very high agreement (LoA 9.0–9.9). The headline change: MRI of the sacroiliac joints (plus spine if symptomatic) replaces radiography as first-line imaging to diagnose axSpA.
Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a biomarker of disease activity and severity in psoriatic arthritis: results from a large longitudinal cohort
Abstract format and assignment number: Poster POS0292
Presenting author: F. Kharouf (Canada)
In 1,685 PsA patients from the Toronto cohort, longitudinal models linked the NLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, an inexpensive complete-blood-count-derived inflammation marker) to disease activity. Elevated NLR (>3) showed stronger, more consistent associations than continuous NLR, including among patients with normal CRP, suggesting it captures inflammatory burden missed by traditional acute-phase reactants.
Dr Olivier Fakih
Country: France
Olivier is a rheumatology fellow at the Department of Rheumatology of Besançon University Hospital in France. His research interests include the epidemiology of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, in particular, mortality and comorbidities in spondyloarthritis. Olivier is a member of the French Society of Rheumatology and the society’s young rheumatologists section (REF). He is a member of the EMEUNET Education Sub-Committee.