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Objective: To determine the relationship between fatigue and disease-related and psychosocial variables in psoriatic arthritis (PsA)., Method: 499 patients attending the University of Toronto PsA Clinic were administered the modified fatigue severity scale (mFSS). At the time of mFSS administration, clinical and laboratory measures of disease activity and damage were recorded. Linear regression models were used to examine the cross-sectional relationship between disease-related and psychosocial variables and mFSS scores., Results: At least moderate fatigue occurred in 49.5% of patients and severe fatigue in 28.7%. Univariately the vast majority of variables were significantly associated with mFSS scores. The final multivariate model was composed of female sex, the medical outcome survey short form 36 (SF-36) pain and mental health scales, the number of fibromyalgia tender points, the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and "ever used" methotrexate, and explained 54.5% of the variation in mFSS scores. The SF-36 mental health scale played the largest role in the multivariate model, uniquely accounting for 6.6% of the variation in the fatigue severity scale. The disease-related factors significant at the univariate level did not achieve statistical significance in the context of HAQ and pain measures., Conclusion: Fatigue is a common symptom in PsA, and is associated, in a multivariate model, with pain, female sex, physical functional disability, medication status and psychological distress. Fatigue appears to provide some information that does not overlap with the core set of outcome domains in PsA.

Background: Increasing evidence for cardiovascular mortality among patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has accumulated, together with evidence for increased prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD)., Objectives: To describe cardiovascular morbidity in PsA, determine its prevalence and identify risk factors for its development., Methods: At the University of Toronto, patients were followed up prospectively according to a standard protocol, including disease-related features and comorbidities. Patients with CVD, including myocardial infarction (MI), angina, hypertension and cerebrovascular accident (CVA), were identified. The prevalence of CVD morbidities in these patients was compared with data from the Canadian Community Health Survey through standardised prevalence ratios (SPRs). Cox relative risk regression analysis was used to analyse risk factors., Results: At the time of analysis, 648 patients were registered in the database. After clinic entry, 122 developed hypertension, 38 had an MI and 5, 21 and 11 had CVA, angina and congestive heart failure (CHF), respectively. 155 patients had at least one of these conditions. The SPRs for MI (2.57; 95% CI 1.73 to 3.80), angina (1.97; 95% CI 1.24 to 3.12) and hypertension (1.90; 95% CI 1.59 to 2.27) were statistically significant, whereas the SPRs for CHF (1.19; 95% CI 0.50 to 2.86) and CVA (0.91; 95% CI 0.34 to 2.43) were not. Factors associated with CVD included diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and high Psoriasis Area and Severity Index scores., Conclusion: Patients with PsA are at increased risk of cardiovascular morbidities compared with the general population. In addition to known risk factors for CVD, severe psoriasis is an important predictor in patients with PsA.

Objective: To develop and validate a psoriatic arthritis (PsA) screening questionnaire: the Toronto Psoriatic Arthritis Screen (ToPAS)., Methods: The ToPAS was developed through review of items seen in patients with PsA and evaluation by patients with PsA and patients with other rheumatological conditions, and was administered to consecutive consenting patients attending five clinics: PsA, psoriasis, general dermatology, general rheumatology (excluding PsA patients) and family medicine. All patients were assessed by a rheumatologist according to a standard protocol. A three-step analysis strategy was adopted: a stepwise logistic regression to identify the questions most important in discriminating between those with and without PsA; a logistic model was fitted to three clinically relevant domains for PsA: skin, joints and nails; and a simpler weighting of each of the domains used in step 2. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were obtained based on these various models., Results: In all, there were 134 patients from the PsA clinic, 123 with psoriasis, 118 from dermatology, 135 from rheumatology and 178 from family medicine. A simplified discriminatory score based on the skin, joint and nail domains gave results comparable to other methods with an observed overall sensitivity and specificity, based on a single cut point, of 86.8% and 93.1%. When the patients with PsA were compared with each of the other four patient groups individually, the sensitivity and specificity of the ToPAS were: psoriasis 89.1%, 86.3%; dermatology 91.9%, 95.2%; rheumatology 92.6%, 85.7%; and family medicine 90.4%, 100%., Conclusion: Our simplified index is very good at classifying those who are not diagnosed with PsA and those who are diagnosed with PsA.