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The Prevalence of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Argentina

2010; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 16; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/rhu.0b013e3181f3bfdd

1536-7355

Darío Scublinsky, Horacio O Venarotti, Gustavo Citera, Osvaldo Daniel Messina, E. J. Scheines, Oscar Rillo, A Arturi, Julio Hofman, Luis F. Somma, Gustavo Casado, Rubén F. Iannantuono, Claudio González,

Hepatitis B Virus Studies

The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the population of a city of 70,000 inhabitants located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Based on the hypothesis that RA is an underdiagnosed disease in Argentina, a capture-recapture method was applied. A local registry of RA patients of Luján City was taken as the primary source; a telephone survey was specifically carried out as a secondary source of information. Patients suspected of having RA were referred to a local hospital to be examined by a team of 12 rheumatologists. Anamnesis and physical examination were followed by hand and foot radiography and erythrocyte sedimentation rate and rheumatoid factor measurements.According to the American College of Rheumatology criteria, a prevalence rate of 0.94% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86%-1.02%) was found in the surveyed population; in agreement with other studies, this prevalence was higher in women when compared with men (for female, 1.54% [95% CI, 1.40%-1.69%]; for male, 0.40% [95% CI, 0.32%-0.49%]).The prevalence of RA in a representative sample of the population of a city from the central region of Argentina seems to be close to 1%.