Evaluation of the Early Indicators, Including Arthralgia, in Diagnosing Brucellosis Arthritis

IF 2.4 4区医学 Q2 MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL

International Journal of Clinical Practice Pub Date : 2025-07-29 DOI:10.1155/ijcp/6439901

Qian Li, Shupeng Song, Shuanghe Xu, Lisheng Jiang, Yinghua Lan, Yongguo Li

{"title":"Evaluation of the Early Indicators, Including Arthralgia, in Diagnosing Brucellosis Arthritis","authors":"Qian Li, Shupeng Song, Shuanghe Xu, Lisheng Jiang, Yinghua Lan, Yongguo Li","doi":"10.1155/ijcp/6439901","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n Aim: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of the numerical rating scale (NRS) for pain in the detection of brucellosis-associated arthritis and to guide treatment decisions.\n Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of patients with brucellosis at two hospitals from October 2017 to January 2024. The study primarily examined the associations between NRS scores and laboratory parameters, as well as the incidence of arthritis. NRS scores are specifically designed to measure pain intensity in patients suspected of having brucellosis-associated arthritis. Then, we employed the chi-square test to analyze the frequency data and generated a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to determine the cutoff value, sensitivity, and specificity for each parameter. According to the cutoff value, we converted the continuous variables into categorical variables and performed a binary logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors.\n Results: A total of 128 patients with brucellosis were enrolled in the study. 64 patients were diagnosed with brucellosis-associated arthritis, while the remaining 64 patients did not have arthritis. A significant difference in age distribution was observed between the two groups (p = 0.012). Age, platelet (PLT) count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and NRS scores were significantly higher in patients with brucellosis-associated arthritis compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Notably, the area under the curve (AUC) for the NRS was 0.851 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.778–0.925). The logistic regression model indicated that patients with a NRS score of ≥ 3.5 or a PLT count of ≥ 198.2 × 109/L faced an increased risk of developing brucellosis-associated arthritis.\n Conclusions: NRS showed potential in identifying subclinical presentations of arthropathic manifestations related to brucellosis in this cohort. This result indicates the need for further validation as a potential screening tool for early-stage articular complications.\n </div>","PeriodicalId":13782,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Practice","volume":"2025 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1155/ijcp/6439901","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Clinical Practice","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/ijcp/6439901","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of the numerical rating scale (NRS) for pain in the detection of brucellosis-associated arthritis and to guide treatment decisions.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of patients with brucellosis at two hospitals from October 2017 to January 2024. The study primarily examined the associations between NRS scores and laboratory parameters, as well as the incidence of arthritis. NRS scores are specifically designed to measure pain intensity in patients suspected of having brucellosis-associated arthritis. Then, we employed the chi-square test to analyze the frequency data and generated a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to determine the cutoff value, sensitivity, and specificity for each parameter. According to the cutoff value, we converted the continuous variables into categorical variables and performed a binary logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors.

Results: A total of 128 patients with brucellosis were enrolled in the study. 64 patients were diagnosed with brucellosis-associated arthritis, while the remaining 64 patients did not have arthritis. A significant difference in age distribution was observed between the two groups (p = 0.012). Age, platelet (PLT) count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and NRS scores were significantly higher in patients with brucellosis-associated arthritis compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Notably, the area under the curve (AUC) for the NRS was 0.851 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.778–0.925). The logistic regression model indicated that patients with a NRS score of ≥ 3.5 or a PLT count of ≥ 198.2 × 10⁹/L faced an increased risk of developing brucellosis-associated arthritis.

Conclusions: NRS showed potential in identifying subclinical presentations of arthropathic manifestations related to brucellosis in this cohort. This result indicates the need for further validation as a potential screening tool for early-stage articular complications.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

包括关节痛在内的早期指标在诊断布鲁氏菌病关节炎中的评价

目的：评价数值评定量表（NRS）在诊断布鲁氏菌病相关性关节炎中的疼痛诊断价值，并指导治疗决策。方法：回顾性分析两所医院2017年10月至2024年1月收治的布鲁氏菌病患者的临床特征。该研究主要考察了NRS评分与实验室参数以及关节炎发病率之间的关系。NRS评分是专门设计用于测量怀疑患有布鲁氏菌病相关关节炎的患者的疼痛强度。然后，我们采用卡方检验对频率数据进行分析，并生成受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线，以确定各参数的截止值、灵敏度和特异性。根据截止值，将连续变量转换为分类变量，进行二元logistic回归分析，识别危险因素。结果：共有128例布鲁氏菌病患者纳入研究。64名患者被诊断为布鲁氏菌病相关关节炎，而其余64名患者没有关节炎。两组患者年龄分布差异有统计学意义（p = 0.012）。布鲁氏菌病相关性关节炎患者的年龄、血小板（PLT）计数、红细胞沉降率（ESR）和NRS评分均显著高于对照组(p <；0.05)。值得注意的是，NRS的曲线下面积（AUC）为0.851（95%可信区间[95% CI]: 0.778-0.925）。logistic回归模型显示，NRS评分≥3.5或PLT计数≥198.2 × 109/L的患者发生布鲁氏菌病相关性关节炎的风险增加。结论：在该队列中，NRS在识别与布鲁氏菌病相关的关节病变亚临床表现方面具有潜力。这一结果表明需要进一步验证作为早期关节并发症的潜在筛查工具。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Journal of Clinical Practice 医学-医学：内科

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

274

审稿时长

3-8 weeks

期刊介绍： IJCP is a general medical journal. IJCP gives special priority to work that has international appeal. IJCP publishes: Editorials. IJCP Editorials are commissioned. [Peer reviewed at the editor''s discretion] Perspectives. Most IJCP Perspectives are commissioned. Example. [Peer reviewed at the editor''s discretion] Study design and interpretation. Example. [Always peer reviewed] Original data from clinical investigations. In particular: Primary research papers from RCTs, observational studies, epidemiological studies; pre-specified sub-analyses; pooled analyses. [Always peer reviewed] Meta-analyses. [Always peer reviewed] Systematic reviews. From October 2009, special priority will be given to systematic reviews. [Always peer reviewed] Non-systematic/narrative reviews. From October 2009, reviews that are not systematic will be considered only if they include a discrete Methods section that must explicitly describe the authors'' approach. Special priority will, however, be given to systematic reviews. [Always peer reviewed] ''How to…'' papers. Example. [Always peer reviewed] Consensus statements. [Always peer reviewed] Short reports. [Always peer reviewed] Letters. [Peer reviewed at the editor''s discretion] International scope IJCP publishes work from investigators globally. Around 30% of IJCP articles list an author from the UK. Around 30% of IJCP articles list an author from the USA or Canada. Around 45% of IJCP articles list an author from a European country that is not the UK. Around 15% of articles published in IJCP list an author from a country in the Asia-Pacific region.