IBD, Type 1 Diabetes May Influence Rheumatoid Arthritis Development
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and type 1 diabetes may serve as predispositions to the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to new findings from a case-control study presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
For the study, the researchers evaluated 821 cases of RA from a biobank at a single center. Each RA case was matched with 3 control cases based on age, sex, and location of residence at the time of the biobank survey. Participants had self-reported the presence or absence for 77 comorbidities, as well as age of onset, on the survey.
Prior to RA diagnosis, participants with RA had the same number of comorbidities as the control cases (median, 1.0). Participants with RA had more comorbidities by the time of the survey compared with the control cases (median, 5.0 vs 4.0).
Prior to RA diagnosis, IBD (1.9% vs 0.5%) and type 1 diabetes (1.3% vs 0.4%) occurred more often among participants with RA than control cases.
After RA diagnosis, myocardial infarctions were more common among participants with RA (3.8% vs 1.2%), and hyperlipidemia was less common (11.4% vs 16.4%), compared with the control cases.
At the time of baseline survey, several comorbidities were more common among participants with RA than control cases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; 6% vs 4%), osteoarthritis (50% vs 38%), and fibromyalgia (15% vs 6%), among other comorbidities. Cancer rates were comparable among the groups (31% vs 32%) across all cancer subtypes.
“Many comorbidities were associated with RA, including several potentially novel comorbidities such as COPD, epilepsy, and acid reflux.…The increased occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes prior to RA suggests either a predisposition to RA development or a shared immunological defect, meriting further study,” the researchers concluded.
—Melinda Stevens
References:
- Kronzer V, Crowson CS, Sparks J, Myasoedova E, Davis J. Comorbidities as risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and accrual after RA diagnosis [EULAR OP0088]. Ann Rheum Dis. 2019;78(suppl2):A116. http://scientific.sparx-ip.net/archiveeular/?view=1&c=a&searchfor=OP0088&item=2019OP0088. Accessed June 14, 2019.
- Inflammatory bowel disease and type I diabetes increase chances of developing rheumatoid arthritis [press release]. Madrid, Spain: Annual European Congress of Rheumatology; June 14, 2019. https://www.eular.org/sysModules/obxContent/files/www.eular.2015/1_42291DEB-50E5-49AE-5726D0FAAA83A7D4/15_abstract_op0088_comorbidities_in_ra_final.pdf. Accessed June 14, 2019.