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Objective: Axial osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of back and neck pain, however, few studies have examined its prevalence. The aim was to estimate the prevalence and the characteristics of symptomatic axial OA in Spain. Methods: EPISER2016 is a cross-sectional multicenter population-based study of people aged 40 years or older. Subjects were randomly selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. Participants were contacted by telephone to complete rheumatic disease screening questionnaires. Two phenotypes were analyzed, patients with Non-exclusive axial OA (NEA-OA) and Exclusive axial OA (EA-OA). To calculate the prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (CI), the sample design was considered and weighting was calculated according to age, sex and geographic origin. Results: Prevalence of NEA-OA by clinical or clinical-radiographic criteria was 19.17% (95% CI: 17.82–20.59). The frequency of NEA-OA increased with age (being 3.6 times more likely in patients aged 80 s or more than in those between 40 and 49 years) and body mass index. It was significantly more frequent in women, as well as in the center of Spain. It was less frequent in those with a higher level of education. Lumbar OA was more frequent than cervical OA. This difference grew with increasing age and was not associated with gender. It was also greater in overweight and obese subjects. Conclusions: This is the first study on the prevalence of axial OA phenotypes in Europe describing the associated socio-demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory chronic diseases (IMIDs) can be challenged as diagnostic test reliability could be impaired by immunosuppression. We retrospectively analyzed the Quantiferon Gold-Test in-Tube (QFT-G-IT) results of all patients with IMIDs seen at the Department of Internal Medicine of Son Llàtzer Hospital, Palma de Mallorca (Spain), looking for the factors related to QFT-G-IT indeterminate results. During the study period (2008-2015), 520 patients met the inclusion criteria. Factors associated with indeterminate QFT-G-IT results in a univariate analysis were inflammatory bowel disease, disease activity, lymphopenia, and medium-to-high doses of corticosteroids. In a subsequent multivariate analysis, only lymphopenia (defined as < 1500 cells) was associated with indeterminate QFT-G-IT results. Lymphocyte count was the only factor independently associated with an increased number of indeterminate QFT-G-IT results in patients with different autoimmune diseases. Others factors such as the use of medium-to-high doses of corticosteroids should be considered before testing with QFT-G-IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]