RESEARCH - Premenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis have marked bone loss

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Premenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis have marked bone loss

6/22/2005

By: Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jun 22 - Premenopausal women with rheumatoid

arthritis (RA) show a significant degree of bone loss compared with their

counterparts without RA, according to a report in the Journal of

Rheumatology for June.

Determining the effect of RA on bone metabolism is difficult because the

disease typically involves peri- or postmenopausal patients for whom

estrogen deficiency could have a major confounding effect.

To sort this out, Dr. Tatiana Freitas Tourinho and colleagues, from Fundacao

Federal Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas in Porto Alegre, Brazil, confined

their analysis to 78 premenopausal women with RA and 39 healthy controls.

Eighty-two percent of the patients were Caucasian and the mean age was 35.5

years with a disease duration of 48 months. Seventy-four percent of the

patients had been treated with glucocorticoids.

The average lumbar spine bone mineral density in the patients was

significantly lower than that seen in controls (p < 0.01), the researchers

note.

Predictors of osteopenia at the lumbar spine included " no physical activity

at work " status, low body weight, and the duration of glucocorticoid

therapy. In addition to this work status, erosions of the hands and a high

erythrocyte sedimentation rate, among other factors, predicted femoral neck

and trochanteric osteopenia.

" The identification of prognostic markers for bone loss in patients with RA

should not only prompt early therapeutic intervention, but also facilitate

early preventive measures, " the authors conclude.

Last Updated: 2005-06-22 9:15:10 -0400 (Reuters Health)

Ann Rheum Dis 2005;32:1020-1025.

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