Factors Associated with Extra Articular Manifestations in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic and inflammatory joint disease that primarily affects the joints and can be associated with a variety of extra-articular manifestations. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency and the factors associated with those extra-articular manifestations.Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study of hospitalized cases of rheumatoid arthritis in our department between January 2012 and January 2018. We studied the prevalence of the extra-articular manifestations and associated factors. The analysis was done by the software EPI INFO 3.5.4.Results : 294 cases of rheumatoid arthritis included. The average age was 53.2 years +/- 12.3 with female predominance F / M = 6.1. The diagnosis lag time was 10.7 +/- 6.9 years. Half of our patients (50.7%) had systemic manifestations. In order of frequency, we distinguish: Osteoporosis (39.6%), Sjögren's syndrome (22.1%), pulmonary involvement (16.1%), dermatological manifestations (8.8%), cardiac involvement (8.8%), ocular involvement (3.1%) carpal tunnel syndrom (1.3%) and vasculitis (1.3%). The extra-articular manifestations were associated with several factors on bivariate analysis : advanced age (p = 0.014), longer duration of disease (p = 0.006), deformities (p = 0.000), seropositivity (p = 0.02), high titers of rheumatoid factor (p = 0.03), destruction (p = 0.02), bone erosions (p = 0.012) and non-use of biotherapy (p = 0.04). Factors whose association was statistically significant, after multivariate logistic regression analysis, were: advanced age (p = 0.04, OR = 1.02 [1.001-1.043], and longer duration of disease (p = 0.02 OR = 1.04 [1.005-1.082]).Conclusion: In our Moroccan context, half of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis had extra-articular manifestations. Older patients with longer disease evolution are the most involved.