P116 THE PREVALENCE AND CHARACTERIZATION OF INFLAMMATORY AXIAL ARTHROPATHIES AMONG VETERANS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

Abstract

Seronegative spondyloarthopathies in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) include ankylosing spondylitis and spondylitis associated with IBD and represent a spectrum of inflammatory axial arthropathies (IAA). To examine the clinical characteristics and prevalence of IAA associated with IBD in large cohort of patients. Using a national cohort of patients diagnosed with IBD between 1999- 2013, we performed a retrospective study at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital. Patients with IAA were identified by using an ICD-9 code algorithm that was previously validated based on clinical and radiology reports. Demographic and clinical data were obtained from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse. IBD and IAA onset were defined as the first clinical encounter with diagnostic code for IBD or AS and other inflammatory spondylopathies (720.x). Comparisons were examined using fisher’s exact tests, means of univariate and multiple analyses. From 77,824 IBD patients, we identified 1,545 patients that were diagnosed with IBD and IAA, (2%) prevalence of IAA. Patients were between the ages of 18–90 years, 92% males, and 42% with Crohn’s Disease (CD). The mean age at IBD index was 53.7 years (+/- 13.2). The race distribution was; 74% white, 13% black, 3% Hispanics, and 2% other. The diagnosis of IBD occurred before IAA diagnosis in 55% patients, 24% diagnosed at the same year, and 21% were diagnosed with IAA before IBD (Table 1). This trend was consistent by IBD subtype (Figure 1). Blacks and Hispanics were more often diagnosed with IBD before IAA than whites (67%, 65% vs. 55%; respectively OR=1.8; 95%CI=1.2–12.5; p=0.001). Our study demonstrates that >50% of the studied patients were diagnosed with IBD prior to IAA. No difference in the timing of diagnosis of IBD in relation to timing of diagnosis of IAA was observed by IBD subtype or race. We describe the findings of one of the largest cohorts of IBD and IAA patients in the literature.