Objectives: To determine the impact of human immunodeficiency (HIV) infection on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity.
Patients & Methods: Retrospective record review of RA patients who HIV sero-converted, compared to a HIV negative RA control group. DAS28-ESR and -CRP scores were collected at the initial presentation (T0), time when HIV diagnosis made (TH) and the last clinic visit (TL).
Results: Forty three HIV positive RA patients were included. At TL disease activity was similar between the groups, despite methotrexate (MTX) being continued in only 11.6% of the HIV group (vs. 83.7% in the control group, p=0.0002). In the HIV group, all clinical parameters improved except the ESR, which accounted for the significantly higher DAS28-ESR compared to the DAS28-CRP at TL (p=0.004). At TL only 13.9% HIV patients had ongoing moderate to high disease activity.
Conclusion: Overall disease activity improved with HIV seroconversion in spite of stopping MTX in the majority of patients. The DAS28-ESR overestimated disease activity compared to DAS28-CRP following HIV seroconversion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12285 |
| Date | 23 January 2013 |
| Creators | Tarr, Gareth Scott |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis (M.Med.(Internal Medicine))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2012 |
| Format | application/pdf |
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