title: Usefulness of routine hepatitis C and hepatitis B serology in the diagnosis of recent-onset arthritis. Systematic prospective screening in all patients seen by the rheumatologists of a defined area--brief report.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies evaluating the usefulness of systematic screening for hepatitis B and C in patients with recent-onset arthritis suffered from a major bias since they were conducted in hospitals. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relevance of such screening, performed by hospital and office-based rheumatologists of a defined area, in the diagnosis of arthritis or inflammatory polyarthralgia of less than 1 year duration.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CRRRI is a network which includes most hospital and office-based rheumatologists of an area with a population of 506,755 inhabitants. All patients seen by the CRRRI participants in their usual practice between March 2008 and December 2010 for inflammatory polyarthralgia, mono-, oligo-, or polyarthritis of less than 1 year duration were included. Patients' serum samples were screened for the presence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies, with positive samples further evaluated for HCV-RNA with a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and for the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and thirty-three patients were included (162 women, 71 men; mean age of 50.6±15.8 years). Patients were evaluated for inflammatory polyarthralgia (n=51), monoarthritis (n=21), oligoarthritis (n=35) or polyarthritis (n=126) lasting for a mean 19.8±29.8 weeks. No new HCV or HBV infection diagnosis was done.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study not suffering from a hospital-selection bias, screening for hepatitis C and B infection was not helpful in the diagnosis process of recent-onset arthritis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Systematic hepatitis B and C serology is not relevant in patients with recent-onset (<1 year) arthritis.
authors: Department of rheumatology, Dijon University Hospital, 21078 Dijon, France. ansemant thiphaine@yahoo.fr
authors: Thiphaine
authors: T
authors: Ansemant
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Ornetti
authors: Jean-François
authors: JF
authors: Garrot
authors: Françoise
authors: F
authors: Pascaud
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Tavernier
authors: Jean-Francis
authors: JF
authors: Maillefert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000379:methods; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012698:Serologic Tests; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies