title: [The prevalence of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of anaemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
  
  
  METHODS
  89 patients who fulfilled American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for RA were included in this study. The mean disease duration was 10.9±8.8 years. All patients received methotrexate (10.5±5.5 mg/week) in combination with folic acid. Steroid hormones were prescribed to 92% (19.3±3.8 mg/day) of patients. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and levels of hemoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) were evaluated in all patients. The World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for anaemia uses a hemoglobin threshold of <120 g/L for women and <130 g/L for men.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anaemia was observed in 57 (64%) of the patients (1st group), the other patients (2nd group) had normal levels of hemoglobin (135.5±10.7 g/L). Duration and activity of RA were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the 1st group compared with the 2nd. ESR, CRP, TNFα, and IL-1β mean levels were significantly increased (p<0.05) in the 1st group when compared with the 2nd group. Negative correlations between hemoglobin level and ESR, CRP, TNFα, and IL-1β concentrations were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed for the first time in Ukraine that in 46% of patients with RA, anaemia was diagnosed. A reduction of hemoglobin level was associated with a high activity of disease.
authors: Departamento de Medicina, Universidade de Medicina Nacional M. Gorky, Donetsk, Ucrânia. Electronic address: a.smyrnova@mail.ru.
authors: Smyrnova
authors: S
authors: Ganna
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D014455:Ukraine / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Anemia; Artrite reumatoide; Rheumatoid arthritis