title: Relationship between handedness and joint involvement in rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by autoimmune chronic joint inflammation, which is worsened by mechanical stress. It is still inconclusive whether joints on the right side or the dominant side get more damaged in RA since the limited number of patients analyzed in the previous study had made it difficult to separately analyze right-handed and left-handed patients. Here, we enrolled 334 RA patients, the biggest number of patients in studies to address this issue and separately analyzed right-handed and left-handed patients. As a result, we observed that joints on the dominant side got clinically and radiologically more involved in the right-handed patients (p ≤ 0.0030). Importantly, this tendency was also seen in the left-handed patients, while it was not statistically significant due to the small sample size. This tendency was observed in each component of clinical or radiological involvement. Thus, handedness influences the laterality of clinical and radiological joint involvement in RA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yaku
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control for Rheumatic Diseases, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Motomu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control for Rheumatic Diseases, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Moritoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furu
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Kyoto-Katsura Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamakawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, Kurashiki Sweet Hospital, Kurashiki, Japan.
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control for Rheumatic Diseases, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.affiliation: Center for Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Fumihiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuneyo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mimori
authors.affiliation: Center for Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.|Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.|Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Chikashi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Terao
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein