Rheumatologie: Aktuelle Forschung
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Evaluation of Helicobacter pylori Infection in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients and Its Correlation to Disease Severity

Haitham Aly Azeem*, Mohamed Ismail Abdelkareem, Mohammed Moneer, Mahmoud Mohamed Moawad, Alaa Mohammed Hashim

Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease which is recognized by symmetric inflammation of joints. Many factors have been proposed as its etiology including microbial infections. H. pylori have been considered as one of the infectious agents linked to RA; however, the data regarding this relation is controversial.

Aim of work: The aim of the study to evaluate the relationship between rheumatoid arthritis severity and H. pylori infection in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Patients and methods: A cross sectional study was conduct at Al-Azhar University Hospital (Assuit) on one hundred patients (10 male, 90 female) diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis according to ACR 1988, these patients were selected from inpatient and outpatient clinics of Internal medicine and rheumatology department. Those patients were divided according to H. pylori stool antigen into two groups , Group 1 includes 50 rheumatoid arthritis patients positive for H. pylori stool antigen and Group 2 also includes 50 rheumatoid arthritis patients negative for H. pylori stool antigen. All patients undergone to detailed history taking, full clinical examinations included musculoskeletal examination, laboratory and radiological investigations to detect the severity of rheumatoid arthritis and its relation to H. pylori infection.

Results: Our study show that rheumatoid arthritis patients with positive H. pylori stool antigen had had higher disease activity markers than negative patients.