Hidradenitis Suppurativa Linked to Higher Osteoarthritis Risk

Credit: Pexels / Ximena Mora

The common skin condition hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) may be a risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis, according to new data that which analyzed the shared pathway of inflammation between the two diseases.

The Taiwan-based study was conducted in order to provide more evidence of real-world links between HS and osteoarthritis, investigators wrote.

The team implemented a retrospective cohort study design and used TriNetX, a global platform which was designed to access electronic medical records from more than 120 collaborative health care organizations, to look at 88 million patient records.

Individuals with documented diagnoses of HS from 2005 to 2017 were analyzed by the research team, with a minimum of five-years follow-up ensured by the team.

The investigators used propensity score matching with several different covariates to create a control arm of the study. They determined the endpoint of their research would be incident osteoarthritis, and following 1:1 propensity score matching, 50,323 patients with HS and an equal number of non-HS controls were used for the analysis.

Overall, the investigators reported that those with HS had a 1.37-fold higher risk of osteoarthritis development when compared to the non-HS control group over a one-year follow-up timeframe. They added that significance persisted over the course of an extended three-year and then five-year follow-up duration.

They specifically reported there was a 20 percent greater five-year risk of future osteoarthritis development among male subjects compared to the non-HS male population. Among those identifying as female, the team found that the risk was 31% greater.

“To recapitulate, we report that patients with HS were of high risk of developing osteoarthritis compared with people without HS, and the risk was 1.41-fold in the first year after HS diagnosis,” invesitgators wrote. “The clinical association was recommended to be taken into account in the treatment plan while approaching patients with HS.”

An original version of this article was published by sister site HCPLive.