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- Published on: 4 June 2020
- Published on: 4 June 2020Influence of body mass index on disease activity and therapeutic response in patients with axial spondyloarthritis
Dear Editor,
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Jean W. Liew and collaborators recently reported a systematic literature review and meta-analysis comprising the association of body mass index (BMI) on disease activity in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) [1]. We consider these data very interesting, as BMI is a modifiable factor. The inclusion criteria defined by the authors were based on the following issues: 1) ankylosing spondylitis, non-radiographic axSpA or all spondyloarthropathies; 2) BMI as primary exposure; 3) a validated measure of disease activity or treatment response, measured by BASDAI or ASDAS as the primary outcome. The search date was 15th December 2019. The authors selected 20 articles for full-text review but then excluded 7 articles, three for not having the primary exposure or outcome of interest, three for not reporting disease activity stratified by BMI at baseline and one for incomplete reporting results (no references provided). Finally, the authors included 13 observational studies in the qualitative analysis and 12 studies in the quantitative meta-analysis. In spite of the broad literature search strategy employed by the authors, at least one article is missed in the included studies, which may reduce the strength of the final conclusions.
Our research group published a manuscript, last February 2019 in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy, attending this issue [2]. This reported the results of a prospective observational study including a total of 180 patients wit...Conflict of Interest:
None declared.