Características clínico epidemiológicas de pacientes diagnosticados con artritis reumatoide en el Hospital Luis Vernaza 2005 - 2018.

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Luis Vernaza Hospital. Design: This is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective study conducted during the period from January 2005 to January 2018. The data was collected in an electronic file of Microsoft Office Excel version 2010, for later transfer and processing in the statistical software IBM SPSS V22. The statistics for the analysis include the percentage for qualitative variables, and the mean, median, range and standard deviation for the quantitative variables. Results: 85.2% of the patients were women. The women / men ratio was 5 to 1. The average age of the patients was 48.03 years. 41.9% of patients had a family history of autoimmune diseases. 23.3% of patients were actively or passively exposed to tobacco smoke. The 79.3% of the sample debuted clinically with polyarthritis. 80.8% were seropositive, that is, with a positive Rheumatoid Factor. 43.7% are medicated with oral steroids and drugs that modify the disease. Conclusions: The most frequent profile of the patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis corresponds to an adult woman with a family history of autoimmune diseases, who comes to the office for polyarthritis and who is treated with drugs that modify the disease. Although smoking has been reported as a risk factor for RA, its presence has not been noticeable in the cases observed.