Cuidados Paliativos e Medicina

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Prevalence of Anemia and its Association with Parameters of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Study from the Moroccan Quest - RA Data

Tazi lachhab Hajar, Samira Rostom, Asmae Hari, Racha Lahlou, Rachid Bahiri, Redouane Abouqal and Najia Hajjaj-Hassouni

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of anemia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and analyze its relationship with parameters of disease activity from the QUEST-RA Moroccan data.
Methods: Moroccan QUEST-RA (Quantitative Standard Monitoring Patients with RA), was inspired from Finnish QUEST-RA and is a national multicentric cross-sectional study of patients with RA (according to the 1987 ACR criteria).
Patients were divided into two groups: a group with anemia and a group without anemia according to the criteria of the World Health Organization. The parameters of disease activity were assessed by patient and physician visual analog scale (VAS: 0-100 mm), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C- Reactive protein (CRP) and DAS-28 ESR (Disease activity score in 28 joints).
Results: 1129 patients with RA were eligible. The mean age of patients was 48.8 ± 12.7 years with female predominance (87.3%). The median disease duration was 6 years (3-12), the mean of DAS28 ESR was 4.94 ± 1.68. The prevalence of anemia was 28.8%. In univariate analysis, there was an association between the presence of anemia, the patient activity assessment, physician activity assessment, ESR, CRP, DAS28 ESR, HAQ. Moreover, there was no association between anemia and the presence of comorbidities (ulcer; myocardial infarction, vascular pathology…). In multivariate analysis, only persisted an association between anemia ESR, CRP and HAQ.
Conclusion: This study suggests that the prevalence of anemia was common and appeared to be independently associated with disease activity. Further studies are needed.