ABSTRACT
Background: rheumatoid arthritis [RA] is one of the causes of secondary osteoporosis. Several studies showed that patients with R4 have number of risk factors for osteoporosis such as decreased physical activity, duration of disease, steroid use, and disease activity
Objective: to evaluate the bone mineral density in patients with rheumatoid arthritis considering the demographic characteristics of patients, disease activity and different modalities of drug therapy
Setting: department of Medicine, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura
Patients and Methods: the study comprised 87 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 40 healthy control. All patients had reports about degree of physical activity, smoking habits, daily intake of milk products and history of fractures. Disease activity of RA was considered. All patients and control had BMD evaluated with DEXA
Results: BMD was significantly lower for women with RA compared with males with RA [0.359 +/- 6.89 versus 0.451 +/- 4.06] and in postmenopausal compared with premenopausal women with RA [0.325 +/- 7.57 versus 0.421 +/- 5.66]. Age and cigarette smoking negatively correlated with BMD while daily intake of milk products and daily physical activity showed positive correlation with BMD. All markers of disease activity were negatively correlated with BMD. As regards the drug therapy, BMD did not significantly dipper between treated groups. BMD was reduced in RA patients with history of fracture than in patients without history of fracture, [0.351 +/- 7.25 versus 0.37 +/- 5.38] however, these differences were not statistically significant
Conclusion: BMD loss is greater in RA patients than in sex and age-matched healthy controls. Age, disease activity and lack of physical activity or inadequate intake of milk products are markers to patients at increased risk of osteoporosis