36º Congresso Brasileiro de Reumatologia

Dados do Trabalho


Title

PREVALENCE OF OSTEOPOROSIS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS FROM CARIRI - CEARA

Background

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that presents osteoporosis (OP) as one of its extra-articular complications recognized. The objective of this study is to analyze the prevalence of OP in patients with RA coming from the Cariri's region.

Materials and methods

This is a retrospective study, based on the evaluation of medical records of patients diagnosed with RA from a private clinic in Juazeiro do Norte-CE.

Results

We studied 109 patients. There was a predominance of females (91%) and the mean age was 35 years (± 15 standard deviations). The elderly represent 84% of the group with OP, however, we didn’t find a significant correlation between the prevalence of OP in patients with RA and age greater than 65 years (p = 0.1424). The densitometric assessment was performed in 59 (54%) patients, of whom 8 (14.5%) presented normal examination, 26 (44%) had osteopenia and 25 (42%) had OP. The majority (76%) of patients with RA and OP had active disease, but the assessment of groups did not show a significant statistical difference (p = 0.2153), either high (p = 0.4841) or low activity disease (p = 0.8157), measured by DAS28 score. In addition, in those with OP, the prevalence of corticosteroids use was 84%, with 100% of them using it in low doses (less than 10mg/day) and 95% using during a prolonged time (over 3 months). There was no correlation between higher prevalence of densitometric OP in patients with RA who used corticosteroids (p = 0.3247), even at low doses (p = 0.2563). However, there was a statistically significant difference in the presence of OP in those who used that medication for more than 3 months (p <0,001). The presence of fracture was found in 12 (11%) patients, being 7 (58.3%) patients with vertebral fracture, 1 (8.3%) with pelvis fracture, 1 (8.3%) with femur fracture plus vertebral fracture and 3 (25%) with no described fractures. There was no significant difference in the presence of fracture in those who had OP (p = 0.1019) or osteopenia (p = 0.5683). The prevalence of osteoporosis in RA patients was not statistically different in patients using biological DMARDS (p = 0.5674).

Conclusions

Osteoporosis was more frequent in those patients with RA and prolonged use of corticosteroids suggesting that all efforts must be done to prevent the prolonged use of prednisone.

Área

Osteoporosis

Autores

LILIAN SAMARA AQUINO SANTOS, GABRIELA MACEDO EGIDIO CAVALCANTE, PATRICIA ANDRADE MACEDO