Suspicious Symptoms Herald Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

August 9, 2018

What constellation of symptoms points to the diagnosis?

Reference1. Muller S, Hider S, Machin A, et al. Searching for a prodrome for rheumatoid arthritis in the primary care record: a case-control study in the clinical practice research datalink. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2018 Jun 23. pii: S0049-0172(18)30229-4. doi:10.1016/j.semarthrit.2018.06.008. [Epub ahead of print]

Muller and colleagues in the UK found that patients who ultimately received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were seen by general practitioners for RA symptoms at a high rate before diagnosis.¹ Scroll through the slides for the details of the study and the take-home points for physicians.

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RA, rheumatoid arthritis.

Rates of consultation up to 6 months before diagnosis of RA defined the look-back period.

CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio; RA, rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients with RA were more likely to have joint specific symptoms on presentation (OR, 44.14; 95% CI, 31.80 - 61.25), followed by other musculoskeletal syndromes (carpal tunnel: OR, 8.50; 95% CI, 5.72 - 12.62) then systemic problems (eg, fatigue: OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.24 - 2.03).

RA, rheumatoid arthritis.

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Suspicious Symptoms Herald Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

Gregory M. Weiss, MD