Prevalence Of Low Body Mass In Rheumathoid Arthritis In Association With The Acute Phase Response:

Noha Maher M. Abdel Nasser

■Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease of complex polygenic etiology that characterised by chronic symmetric inflammation of peripheral joints.■RA is a progressively debilitating disease, it results in profound weight loss in some patients which has multifactorial mechanisms.■The aim of this work was to detect the prevalence of low body mass in RA patients and the possible relation with the acute phase reactants.■The study conducted on 20 patients had RA and another 20 normal persons as control group.■All the subjects were subjected to:1- Anthrompometric measurements from which body components were achieved, they were:*Weight * Height * BMI*Knee height * Waist circumference*Triceps skin fold thickness*Upper arm circumference*Arm muscle area * Free-fat mass.*Free-fat mass index.2-Laboratory measurements, they were:*ESR * CRP*a-1-Antitrypsin* Albumin■ The results of our study showed:- There was increased values of +ve APRs & decreased values of —ve APRs between the studied patients and the control group.- There was decrease in body weight between the studied patientsand the control group. This was more in lean body mass than fat mass.- The more decrease in body weight and lean body mass wasassociated with the more deteriorated functional outcome as indicated by disability index.- The more decrease in body weight and lean body mass was also in direct association with the APRs results.- The results were more significant in female patients than males.- There was no significant correlation in association with the age or the duration of the disease.■ The conclusion of this study suggested that in RA patients there was decrease in body weight which was marked for leanbody mass, and this showed significance with the acute phase reactants.■ This results showed that decrease body weight and even cachexia is common, severe, and unrecognized perfectly in RA.This needs further study of rheumatoid cachexia and the possible roles of other factors.