Correlation between Joint Erosion and Clinical and Laboratory Findings in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Introduction & Objective: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic progressive inflammatory disease of the articular joint that results in significant pain, stiffness and swelling and leads to destruction. The clinical findings and biomarkers application can allow clinicians to quality the effects of aggressive treatment during the first stage of the disease in order to prevent joint destruction and disability. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between joint erosion and clinical and laboratory findings. Materials & Methods: In this cross sectional study 266 patients with RA referred to Mobasher Kashani hospital in Hamadan were evaluated. The data of clinical and laboratory findings and X ray results were collected and analyzed by chi square test. Results: The study showed that the painful joint, number of painful joint and swelling joint had a significant correlation with erosion (P=0.05, P=0.057, P=0.013 respectively). The morning stiffness, fatigue and rheumatoid nodule had a significant correlation with joint erosion (P=0.001 , P=0.00 , P=0.04 respectively). However the number of joint swelling, elevated ESR, positive CRP and positive RF didn’t have significant correlation with joint erosion (P=0.18 , P=0.108 , P=0.66 , P=0.32 respectively). Conclusions: We conclude that for a better diagnosis of joint erosion both clinical and paraclinical findings should be considered.

Keywords

• clinical finding
• erosion
• para clinical finding
• rheumatoid arthritis