Prevalence and associated factors of sarcopenia in women with rheumatoid arthritis

In General, with aging, there is a decrease in the non-fat mass, predominantly muscle mass, thereby decreasing muscle strength and endurance. Recent studies have shown that chronic inflammatory diseases, especially RA, lead to sarcopenia. But in the course of RA's disease, body composition changes are one of the few issues. A cross-sectional study of 121 female patients between the ages of 40-72, which was determined according to the 2010 ACR / EULAR RA classification criteria, was conducted. Patients with skeletal muscle index (SMI) ≤ 5.5 kg/m2 were defined as sarcopenic by measuring the muscular mass of the patients with the DXA method. Patients with and without sarcopenia were divided into two groups and the associated factors were investigated. Concurrent comorbidities and drug use were questioned. The duration of the disease, medications used for RA, joint pain, morning stiffness, tender and swollen joint counts, ESR and CRP levels, RF and Anti-CCP titers were recorded. DAS28 and HAQ scores, physical activity levels (with IPAQ-short form) were calculated. BMI was measured and classified according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In our study, sarcopenia was detected in 45 patients and the ratio was 37.2% to all patients. The mean BMI was lower in patients with sarcopenia; the rate of sarcopenia was significantly higher in patients with normal BMI or overweight than in obese patients (p<0,05). While joint pain severity, morning stiffness and disease activation scores (DAS28) were higher in patients with sarcopenia (p<0,05); no significant difference was found between ESR and CRP levels, RF and Anti-CCP seropositivity. HAQ scores were significantly higher in the sarcopenic group (p<0,001). Physical activity levels were significantly lower in the sarcopenic group (p <0.001). Between the groups, there was no significant difference in the presence of DM, steroid, csDMARD and biological DMARD use (p>0,05). Nine patients (20%) used rituximab in the sarcopenic group and 5 patients (6.7%) were using rituximab in the non-sarcopenia group. (P <0.05). In conclusion, in our study, approximately one third of RA patients had sarcopenia. In patients with normal BMI or overweight, the rate of sarcopenia was higher than obese patients. The rate of sarcopenia was higher in patients with active disease, high HAQ scores and low physical activity.