Lean Body and Low Anti-CCP Equal Better Bone Mass

Jun 22, 2018

A simple blood test can help you assess patients with RA for fracture risk.

Reference1. Wysham KD, Shoback DM, Imboden JB Jr, Katz PP. Association of high anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide seropositivity and lean mass index with low bone mineral density in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res. 2017 Nov 5. doi:10.1002/acr.23440. [Epub ahead of print]

Wysham and fellow researchers from UC San Francisco, who looked at patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), found a positive relationship between appendicular lean mass index (ALMI) and bone mineral density (BMD) and a negative relationship between anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) and BMD.¹

Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home messages for clinicians.

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Finding tools to risk-stratify patients with RA for osteoporosis and fracture may lead to mitigating that risk with early treatment.

ALMI, appendicular lean mass index; anti-CCP, anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide; DXA, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.

Multivariate analysis was used to determine associations between the variables.

ALMI, appendicular lean mass index; anti-CCP, anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide; DXA, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry; FMI, fat mass index; RF, rheumatoid factor.

Men had higher rates of obesity as defined by DXA total fat (80% of men were obese versus 44% of women; P < .0001) and higher rates of self-reported low physical activity (43% for men versus 27% for women; P = .050). Oral steroid dose had negative associations with BMD (P < 0.1, except RF P < .05).

A simple blood test can help physicians assess patients with RA for fracture risk.