The Characteristics of Elderly Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis

Yoo, Tae Seok; Kim, Tae Hwan; Jun, Jae Bum; Chang, Dae Kook; Jung, Sung Soo; Lee, In Hong; Bae, Sang Cheol; Yoo, Dae Hyun; Kim, Think You; Kim, Seong Yoon

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Patients who develop rheumatoid arthritis over 60 years old(elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis, EORA) are different from those of younger-onset disease(YORA). Several aspects are emphasized; more equal sex distribution, more often systemic complaints, more larger joints involvement, high ESR rates, and less rheumatoid factor positivity. We compared the clinical characteristics of EORA with those of YORA.
METHODS
Five hundred and fifty-six patients who had met the ACR criteria for rheumatoid arthritis were studied. We compared the difference with clinical manifestation, disease activity markers, serologic markers including rheumatoid factor and anti-perinuclear factor, and radiologic changes between EORA and YORA.
RESULTS
EORA : YORA ratio is 49 : 507, no difference between male and female ratio. The age at onset of EORA is 67.3 +/- .89 years old, YORA is 4.9 +/-10.5 years old, disease duration is not different in both groups. The ESR of EORA (47.65 +/-13.8) is higher than that of YORA ( 39.49+/-.1 ), the positivity of antiperinuclear factor is significantly increased in the EORA group as compared with YORA group. The comparisons of disease activity including Ritchie index; early RA in both groups showed significant difference only in rheumatoid factor titer.
CONCLUSION
The EORA is similar to YORA except high ESR, high rheumatoid factor titer, and high positivity of antiperinuclear factor. However, we failed to demonstrate that the EORA runs different course with heterogeneous pathogenesis to the YORA.