Lipid abnormalities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: to determine the frequency of dyslipidemia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. methods: this is a prospective,cross-sectional,observational study,conducted at the ‘rheumatology clinic’ of jinnah postgraduate medical center (jpmc),karachi,from november 2013 to may 2014. a total of 200 patients of rheumatoid arthritis (ra),diagnosed according to the acr/eular criteria 2010,were included in the study. laboratory investigations including creatinine,alt,cbc,tsh and fasting lipid profile (ldl,hdl,and total cholesterol) were done for all patients. results: out of 200 patients,23 (11.5%) were male and 177 (88.5%) were female. the mean age was 36.31±10.46 years and the mean duration of disease was 3.82±3.03 years. a total of 107 (53.5%) patients had dyslipidemia,and the commonest abnormality was a low hdl,seen in 83 (41.5 %) patients. conclusion: dyslipidemia was frequently observed in rheumatoid arthritis. this may be considered as a secondary impact of chronic inflammatory state,seen in ra. lipid abnormalities should be sought at regular intervals,and corrective actions taken to mitigate increased cardiovascular disease risk. © 2017,professional medical publications. all rights reserved.