Titel Deelnemers "Association of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Acute Anterior Uveitis, but Not Psoriasis, With Disease Duration in Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis: Results From Two Belgian Nationwide Axial Spondyloarthritis Cohorts" "Gaëlle Varkas, Thomas Renson, Philippe Carron, van den Bosch Filip, Dirk Elewaut" "Progress in spondylarthritis. Mechanisms of new bone formation in spondyloarthritis" "Rik Lories, Frank Luyten, Kurt De Vlam" "Targeted therapies that neutralize tumour necrosis factor are often able to control the signs and symptoms of spondyloarthritis. However, recent animal model data and clinical observations indicate that control of inflammation may not be sufficient to impede disease progression toward ankylosis in these patients. Bone morphogenetic proteins and WNTs (wingless-type like) are likely to play an important role in ankylosis and could be therapeutic targets. The relationship between inflammation and new bone formation is still unclear. This review summarizes progress made in our understanding of ankylosis and offers an alternative view of the relationship between inflammation and ankylosis." "Progress in spondylarthritis immunopathogenesis of spondyloarthritis: which cells drive disease?" "Lode Melis" "Association of Comorbidities in Spondyloarthritis With Poor Function, Work Disability, and Quality of Life: Results From the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society Comorbidities in Spondyloarthritis Study" "van den Bosch Filip" "The assessment of spondyloarthritis international society classification criteria for peripheral spondyloarthritis and for spondyloarthritis in general" "M Rudwaleit, D van der Heijde, R Landewé, N Akkoc, J Brandt, CT Chou, M Dougados, F Huang, J Gu, Y Kirazli, Filip Van den Bosch, I Olivieri, E Roussou, S Scarpato, IJ Sørensen, R Valle-Oñate, U Weber, J Wei, J Sieper" "The development of Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (part I): classification of paper patients by expert opinion including uncertainty appraisal" "Kurt De Vlam" "OBJECTIVE: Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) is characterised by a lack of definitive radiographic sacroiliitis and is considered an early stage of ankylosing spondylitis. The objective of this study was to develop candidate classification criteria for axial SpA that include patients with but also without radiographic sacroiliitis. METHODS: Seventy-one patients with possible axial SpA, most of whom were lacking definite radiographic sacroiliitis, were reviewed as ""paper patients"" by 20 experts from the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS). Unequivocally classifiable patients were identified based on the aggregate expert opinion in conjunction with the expert-reported level of certainty of their judgement. Draft criteria for axial SpA were formulated and tested using classifiable patients. RESULTS: Active sacroiliitis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (odds ratio 45, 95% CI 5.3 to 383; p" "Treating axial spondyloarthritis and peripheral spondyloarthritis, especially psoriatic arthritis, to target : 2017 update of recommendations by an international task force" "Josef S Smolen, Monika Schoels, Juergen Braun, Maxime Dougados, Oliver FitzGerald, Dafna D Gladman, Arthur Kavanaugh, Robert Landewe, Philip Mease, Joachim Sieper, Tanja Stamm, Maarten de Wit, Daniel Aletaha, Xenofon Baraliakos, Neil Betteridge, Filip Van den Bosch, Laura C Coates, Paul Emery, Lianne S Gensler, Laure Gossec, Philip Helliwell, Merryn Jongkees, Tore K Kvien, Robert D Inman, Iain B McInnes, Mara Maccarone, Pedro M Machado, Anna Molto, Alexis Ogdie, Denis Poddubnyy, Christopher Ritchlin, Martin Rudwaleit, Adrian Tanew, Bing Thio, Douglas Veale, Kurt de Vlam, Desire van der Heijde" "The development of assessment of spondyloarthritis international society classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (part II): validation and final selection" "M Rudwaleit, D van der Heijde, R Landewé, J Listing, N Akkoc, J Brandt, J Braun, CT Chou, E Collantes-Estevez, M Dougados, F Huang, J Gu, M Khan, Y Kirazli, W Maksymowych, Herman Mielants, I Sørensen, S Ozgocmen, E Roussou, R Valle-Oñate, U Weber, J Wei, J Sieper" "Objective: To validate and refine two sets of candidate criteria for the classification/diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (SpA). Methods: All assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS) members were invited to include consecutively new patients with chronic (>= 3 months) back pain of unknown origin that began before 45 years of age. The candidate criteria were first tested in the entire cohort of 649 patients from 25 centres, and then refined in a random selection of 40% of cases and thereafter validated in the remaining 60%. Results: Upon diagnostic work-up, axial SpA was diagnosed in 60.2% of the cohort. Of these, 70% did not fulfil modified New York criteria and, therefore, were classified as having ""non-radiographic'' axial SpA. Refinement of the candidate criteria resulted in new ASAS classification criteria that are defined as: the presence of sacroiliitis by radiography or by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plus at least one SpA feature (""imaging arm'') or the presence of HLA-B27 plus at least two SpA features (""clinical arm''). The sensitivity and specificity of the entire set of the new criteria were 82.9% and 84.4%, and for the imaging arm alone 66.2% and 97.3%, respectively. The specificity of the new criteria was much better than that of the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group criteria modified for MRI (sensitivity 85.1%, specificity 65.1%) and slightly better than that of the modified Amor criteria (sensitivity 82.9, specificity 77.5%). Conclusion: The new ASAS classification criteria for axial SpA can reliably classify patients for clinical studies and may help rheumatologists in clinical practice in diagnosing axial SpA in those with chronic back pain." "Anti-TNF therapy and malignancy in spondyloarthritis in the Leuven spondyloarthritis biologics cohort (BIOSPAR)" "Rik Lories, Rene Westhovens, Patrick Verschueren, Kurt De Vlam" "To report the incidence of malignancy in a large single-centre cohort in Belgium of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) treated with one or more anti-TNF therapies and to compare the results with the incidence of malignancy in the Belgian population." "Distinct immune modulatory roles of regulatory T cells in gut versus joint inflammation in TNF-driven spondyloarthritis" "Koen Venken, Matthias Jarlborg, Tine Decruy, Céline Mortier, Carolien Vlieghe, Elisabeth Gilis, Ann-Sophie De Craemer, Julie Coudenys, Isabelle Cambré, Devan Fleury, Alexander Klimowicz, Filip Van den Bosch, Anne Hoorens, Triana Lobatón Ortega, Sytze de Roock, Tim Sparwasser, Gerald Nabozny, Peggy Jacques, Dirk Elewaut" "Objectives: Gut and joint inflammation commonly co-occur in spondyloarthritis (SpA) which strongly restricts therapeutic modalities. The immunobiology underlying differences between gut and joint immune regulation, however, is poorly understood. We therefore assessed the immunoregulatory role of CD4+FOXP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells in a model of Crohn's-like ileitis and concomitant arthritis. Methods: RNA-sequencing and flow cytometry was performed on inflamed gut and joint samples and tissue-derived Tregs from tumour necrosis factor (TNF)∆ARE mice. In situ hybridisation of TNF and its receptors (TNFR) was applied to human SpA gut biopsies. Soluble TNFR (sTNFR) levels were measured in serum of mice and patients with SpA and controls. Treg function was explored by in vitro cocultures and in vivo by conditional Treg depletion. Results: Chronic TNF exposure induced several TNF superfamily (TNFSF) members (4-1BBL, TWEAK and TRAIL) in synovium and ileum in a site-specific manner. Elevated TNFR2 messenger RNA levels were noted in TNF∆ARE/+ mice leading to increased sTNFR2 release. Likewise, sTNFR2 levels were higher in patients with SpA with gut inflammation and distinct from inflammatory and healthy controls. Tregs accumulated at both gut and joints of TNF∆ARE mice, yet their TNFR2 expression and suppressive function was significantly lower in synovium versus ileum. In line herewith, synovial and intestinal Tregs displayed a distinct transcriptional profile with tissue-restricted TNFSF receptor and p38MAPK gene expression. Conclusions: These data point to profound differences in immune-regulation between Crohn's ileitis and peripheral arthritis. Whereas Tregs control ileitis they fail to dampen joint inflammation. Synovial resident Tregs are particularly maladapted to chronic TNF exposure."