An unfavorable body composition is common in early arthritis patients: a case control study

Background. An unfavorable body composition is often present in chronic arthritis patients. This unfavorable composition is a loss of muscle mass, with a stable or increased (abdominal) fat mass. Since it is unknown when this unfavorable composition develops, we compared body composition in disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD)-naive early arthritis patients with non-arthritis controls and explored the association, in early arthritis patients, with disease activity and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Methods. 317 consecutive early arthritis patients (84% rheumatoid arthritis according to 2010 ACR/EULAR criteria) and 1268 age-/gender-/ethnicity-matched non-arthritis controls underwent a Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan to assess fat percentage, fat mass index, fat mass distribution and appendicular lean (muscle) mass index. Additionally, disease activity, health assessment questionnaire (HAQ), acute phase proteins, lipid profile and blood pressure were evaluated. Re...研究背景：慢性关节炎患者常存在不良体成分异常。此类异常表现为肌肉量丢失，同时腹部脂肪量保持稳定或增加。由于目前尚不明确此类不良体成分异常出现的时间节点，本研究将未使用改善病情抗风湿药（disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, DMARD）的早期关节炎患者与非关节炎对照人群的体成分进行对比，并探讨早期关节炎患者的体成分与疾病活动度及传统心血管危险因素之间的关联。研究方法：本研究纳入317例连续性早期关节炎患者（其中84%符合2010年美国风湿病学会/欧洲抗风湿病联盟（ACR/EULAR）类风湿关节炎诊断标准），以及1268例年龄、性别、种族匹配的非关节炎对照人群，所有受试者均接受双能X线吸收测定法（Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, DXA）扫描，以评估体脂百分比、脂肪质量指数、体脂分布情况及四肢瘦体重（肌肉）指数。此外，本研究还对受试者的疾病活动度、健康评估问卷（HAQ）、急性期蛋白、血脂谱及血压进行了评估。Re...