Session Information
Title: Rheumatoid Arthritis - Clinical Aspects (ACR): Comorbidities, Treatment Outcomes and Mortality
Session Type: Abstract Submissions (ACR)
Background/Purpose
In some countries, the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus infection is high and sometimes the appropriate tests to detect it are not performed in a routine evaluation in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our aim was to study the hepatitis C virus infection prevalence in RA patients and to determine the clinical characteristics of the patients who were screened and to evaluate the behavior of the current screening.
Methods
Retrospective, Observational, non-comparative study. We reviewed all charts of RA patients seen between 2013 and 2014 in three settings. University Hospital (HU), Private Practice (PP), and Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), all from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. We select cases that met the ACR 1987 and EULAR/ ACR 2010 criteria for RA. We look for laboratory tests including rheumatoid factor, anti CCP, the screening test for hepatitis C virus and liver function tests.
Results
Eight hundred and sixty-four patients were analyzed, 312 (36.1%) of HU, 380 (44%) of IMSS and 172 (19.9%) of PP. Females 92% (n = 792). Mean age 51.6 years (age range 17-89). Anti-TNF therapy were used in 172 patients (19.9%), and the rest used DMARDs (methotrexate, sulfasalazine, hydroxychloroquine, leflunomide and chloroquine). Rheumatoid factor was positive in 63.7%. Anti CCP was positive in 69.8%. Only 197 patients(22.8%) were screened for hepatitis C. One hundred eighty-eight (95%) from PP. The main reason because they were being treated with anti-TNF agents (golimumab, adalimumab, certolizumab pegol and infliximab). In public practice, corresponding to HU, five patients were screened and at IMSS only four. There was only one positive patient (1/197) corresponding to 0.5% for the screened patients.
Conclusion
In countries where hepatitis C virus is not endemic, as in Mexico, routine screening for HCV does not seem a regular practice for the rheumatologists, the main reason for screening in private practice was that the population was mostly being treated with anti-TNF agents, in contrast to public practice where the mainstay of treatment were DMARDs.
Disclosure:
C. Skinner-Taylor,
None;
A. Erhard-Ramírez,
None;
D. Vega-Morales,
None;
J. Esquivel-Valerio,
None;
D. Flores-Alvarado,
None;
D. Treviño-Montes,
None;
E. Torres-López,
None.
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/screening-behavior-and-prevalence-of-hepatitis-c-virus-in-mexico/