RESEARCH - Rheumatoid cachexia not uncommon in RA patients

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Rheumatoid Cachexia Not Uncommon in RA Patients

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 30 - About 20% of patients with mild

rheumatoid arthritis (RA) also have rheumatoid cachexia, and this is

associated with dyslipidemia, Swedish researchers report in a March

10th online paper in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

To gain more information on factors possibly related to cachexia, Dr.

Ann-Charlotte Elkan of the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm

and colleagues studied 80 RA patients with a median disease duration

of 6 years.

Rheumatoid cachexia, defined as fat free mass index below the 25th

percentile and fat mass index above the 50th percentile of a reference

population, was seen in 18% of the women and 26% of the men.

This group of patients had significantly higher total cholesterol and

LDL, and a trend towards higher oxidized LDL as well as lower levels

of atheroprotective antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PC).

They also had a higher frequency of hypertension (69%) and of

metabolic syndrome (25%) than those without rheumatoid cachexia.

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Read the full article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/590361

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