A Retrospective Study on Clinical Characteristics of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

To study the clinical characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients attending the rheumatology unit in a private hospital. The demographic characteristics, laboratory parameters, comorbidities, articular manifestations and pattern of prescriptions were studied from the case records . A total of 75 RA patients were studied. Female preponderance was observed and the ratio was found to be 3:1. The frequent laboratory measurements were found to be erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), hemoglobin (Hb), and other hematological parameters. The articular manifestations were found to be knee, wrist, ankle, shoulder and elbow joints. The most common comorbidity was found to be hypertension and diabetes mellitus. The prescription pattern revealed the disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) as the first line drugs followed by steroids and non –steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The first line DMARD was found to be methotrexate. The tendency of polypharmacy was more and the most combination was DMARD with a steroid and NSAID. The trend reveals aggressive therapy among rheumatologists. Frequent monitoring of adverse drug reactions like hepatic abnormalities for DMARDs and bone densitometry for oral glucocorticoids and drug interactions could further improve the quality of life of RA patients. key words: Rheumatoid, CArthritis, DMARD, NSAID, Glucocorticoids, Pharmacy