Metabolic Syndrome Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Correlation with Disease Activity

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic inflamatory disease that affects primarily the synovial joints and it is associated with a progressive disability and a important socio-economic burden. [1] Although the main characteristic is the joint involvement, it is important to remember that RA is a disorder with systemic involvement mainly due to it s chronic inflamation. Patients with RA have a higher risk of cardio-vascular mortality that in general population. There are numerous studies that sugest that inflamation plays a key role in the develompent of aterosclerosis and heart disease, therefore a better understanding of the inflamatory response in RA may lead to better outcomes for patients with RA. Metabolic Syndrome is described as a congregate of major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD): Diabetes and raised fasting plasma glucose, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and high blood presure[2]. The clustering of CVD risk factors that typifies the metabolic syndrome is now considered to be the driving force for a new CVD epidemic [3]. The conducted study aims to assess and evaluate the presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in RA patients. 120 patients with RA (89 women and 31 men) and 120 (85 women and 35 men) patients without RA were included in the study. The prevalence of MetS in RA patients was 39.16% and 22.5% for the control group. RA patients with MetS had significantly higher disease activity score of 28 joints index (DAS28-ESR) than patients without MetS ( 3.70 0.644 vs. 3.35 0.725; p=0.006).