Osteoporosis diagnostics in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic connective tissue disease. The development of comorbidities often occurs in the course of RA. One of them is osteoporosis, which has serious social and economic effects and may contribute to the increase in the degree of disability and premature death...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Małgorzata Węgierska, Marta Dura, Einat Blumfield, Paweł Żuchowski, Marzena Waszczak, Sławomir Jeka
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Termedia Publishing House 2016-03-01
Series:Rheumatology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.termedia.pl/Osteoporosis-diagnostics-in-patients-with-rheumatoid-arthritis,18,27172,1,1.html
Description
Summary:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic connective tissue disease. The development of comorbidities often occurs in the course of RA. One of them is osteoporosis, which has serious social and economic effects and may contribute to the increase in the degree of disability and premature death of the patient. Due to the young age in which RA disease occurs, densitometry (DXA) of the lumbar spine is the basic examination in osteoporosis diagnostics. In the course of RA, much more frequently than in healthy persons of the same age, osteoporotic fractures of vertebral bodies occur, which hinder a correct assessment in the DXA test. Rheumatoid arthritis patients often undergo computed tomography (CT) examination of the abdominal cavity for other medical indications than suspected spinal injury. Then, CT examination may also serve for the assessment of bone density, especially in patients with osteoporotic fractures.
ISSN:0034-6233
2084-9834