Abstract Background IBD Patients have an increased risk of developing extraintestinal manifestations. Although EIMs are a known phenomenon, the available data is heterogeneous in methodology and employed definitions. Recently, very high prevalences of musculoskeletal (MSK) symptoms have been described by Vladimirova et al (1). The aim of this cohort is to evaluate the prevalence and evolution of EIM in early IBD patients and to identify risk factors associated with the development of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). Methods Newly diagnosed (1 year) (Cohort A) and/or bio-naïve (Cohort B) IBD patients were included since April 2024 at the outpatient clinic from a tertiary IBD centre. Patients underwent endoscopic evaluation and received standard of care treatment by their IBD physician. At baseline, every patient underwent a comprehensive rheumatological work-up, including a full clinical and biochemical work-up as well as an MRI of the axial skeleton and HLAB27 testing. Interim results after 1 year of the REUvolution-IBD study are reported. Statistics were performed using SPSS statistics 31. Data distribution was assessed for normality and appropriate descriptive statistics were applied accordingly Results So far, a total of 37 patients were included. Baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1. Twenty-two patients (59.5%) experienced MSK symptoms. The mean age of MSK symptom onset and median symptom duration between onset and IBD diagnosis are shown in Table 1. The median BASDAI score for all patients at baseline was 1.8 (IQR 2.0) indicating a low overall subjective burden of inflammatory MSK symptoms in this cohort. Three patients (8.1%) were diagnosed with axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA). All three were male, had Crohn’s disease and presented with MSK symptoms. Strikingly, the mean ASDAS score for these three patients was only 1.25 (SD 0.27 0.86; 1.76), which corresponds with inactive disease in AxSpA. No other significant differences in MSK symptoms when comparing ulcerative colitis vs Crohn’s disease, Cohort A vs B, were found. No significant associations between MSK symptoms and IBD disease activity indicators were observed. Conclusion First interim results of this study show a high prevalence of MSK symptoms in bio-naïve IBD patients, in line with recent literature. Nevertheless, only 13.6% of those with MSK symptoms were diagnosed with an underlying RMD. Therefore, caution is warranted when interpreting reports on MSK symptoms in IBD trials. Reference: 1. Vladimirova N, Zhao M, Ørnbjerg ML, Møller MJ, Attauabi M, Nielsen WJY, et al. Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Clinical Findings in Bio-naïve Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Prior to Biological Treatment Initiation: A Prospective Cohort Study. Digestive Diseases and Sciences. 2025;70(8):2768-85. Conflict of interest: Martens, Elisabeth: No conflict of interest Geldof, Jeroen: Personal Fees: Jeroen Geldof has served as an advisory board member for Arena and as a speaker for Janssen and Galapagos. Truyens, Marie: No conflict of interest Van Den Bosch, Filip: No conflict of interest Elewaut, Dirk: Grant: Merck, MRM health, UCB, BMS, Abbvie, Galapagos, Argenix, Novo Nordisk, Novartis Personal Fees: Merck, MRM health, UCB, BMS, Abbvie, Galapagos, Argenix, Novo Nordisk, Novartis Varkas, Gaëlle: No conflict of interest Lobatón Ortega, Triana: No conflict of interest
Martens et al. (Thu,) studied this question.