PO:08:121 | Correlation between SENS score and perceived disability in a monocentric cohort of patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis: preliminary analysis of 209 patients

Francesco Angius¹, Nicoleta Anamari Costin¹, Mattia Fadda¹, Davide Corradini², Mattia Congia², Elisabetta Chessa², Alberto Floris¹, Matteo Piga^{1 -2}, Alberto Cauli^{1 -2} | ¹SC Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Salute Pubblica, Università di Cagliari; ²SC Reumatologia, AOU Cagliari, Italy

Bacgound. To demonstrate the correlation between structural joint damage, measured through the SENS score, and perceived disability in a monocentric cohort of patients affected by Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Materials and Methods. Out of a cohort of 1262 patients, 209 consecutive patients affected by RA (diagnosis according to the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria) were evaluated. For each patient, demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics were collected: sex, date of birth, disease duration, therapy with b-DMARDS, cs-DMARDS and steroids, positivity for rheumatoid factor and/or anti-CCP, BMI, CRP, fibromyalgia, comorbidities, Visual Analogue Score (VAS), Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). The SENS score was calculated on the most recent X-rays of hands and feet available. The correlation between HAQ and SENS (total, hands and feet) was evaluated using the correlation coefficient r. Moreover, a multivariate analysis was performed with other variables known to be associated with the HAQ score.

Results. The patients (74% female) had a mean age of 63.5 (55–72) years and a disease duration of 13.65 (5.8–23.7) years. The remaining characteristics of the patients are shown in the table. The median total SENS score was 10 (4–25). Patients showed greater erosive damage in the hands compared to the feet (SENS score hands 8 (1–16.33); SENS score feet 2 (0–5). A positive linear correlation was found between erosive damage, both total and for hands and feet separately, and the HAQ score; total SENS score vs HAQ r = 0.33, p = 0.001; hands SENS score vs HAQ r = 0.33, p = 0.001; feet SENS score vs HAQ r = 0.23, p = 0.008. The multivariate analysis showed an independent association with total SENS score (p = 0.0009), age (p = 0.0217), and fibromyalgia (p = 0.0146). No independent association was found with BMI, presence of comorbidities, disease duration, or DAS28.

Conclusions. The study highlighted a linear correlation between erosive damage expressed by SENS and the degree of perceived disability. Erosive damage resulted independently associated with perceived disability together with age and fibromyalgia. This study confirms the importance of the systematic evaluation of erosive damage.