The Relationship Between Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoporosis and Factors Contributing to This Connection

February 20, 2024 updated by: Felopateer Talaat Sedhom, Assiut University
This study aims to explore the association between RA and osteoporosis and highlight the risk factors that RA patients have that may cause or affect osteoporosis progress.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune chronic connective tissue disease that produces persistent systemic inflammation, with joint inflammation leading to function loss and joint destruction. It can finally lead to some serious systematic disorders, such as cardiovascular, pulmonary, skeletal, and psychological disorders.

One of the most severe comorbidities of RA is osteoporosis (OP), which is a chronic metabolic skeletal disease leading to an increased risk of low trauma fracture, and many factors can play a role in increasing this association including treating RA patients with glucocorticoid over a long duration, chronic joints inflammation, calcium malabsorption, age of the patients, and genetics.

Osteoporosis is characterized by microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue and low bone mass. The most commonly used measurement for OP is bone mineral density (BMD) and DEXA (dual x-ray absorptiometry) Scans.

Osteoporosis can result in devastating physical, psychosocial, and economic consequences. Still, it is often overlooked and undertreated, in large part because it is clinically silent; there are no symptoms before a fracture occurs.

Epidemiological studies indicate that about 60-80% of RA patients have a comorbidity of OP.

These two kinds of complex diseases may share some common genetic mechanisms and biological processes. For example, proinflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-17, IL-6, and IL-1 have been reported to be closely associated with OP, and they also play important roles in the development of RA. Also, the inflammation in the joints increases bone absorption and makes RA patients susceptible to bone loss and osteoporosis development.

One of the primary drugs recommended for the treatment of RA is a corticosteroid, glucocorticoid (GC). Both systemic corticosteroid and intraarticular corticosteroid are proven to be risk factors for developing secondary osteoporosis and osteoporotic fracture. The risk increases with the long duration of use and using a high dose. Longer duration and severity of RA were also indicated as independent risk factors for vertebral fractures. The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) recommended increasing the awareness of RA patients about BMD and getting DXA done for identifying a patient at risk of osteoporosis.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

105

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patient more than 18 years old classified as rheumatoid arthritis based on ACR/EULAR 2010 Classification criteria

  • Patients with other clinical conditions that causes secondary osteoporosis as Diabetes Mellitus, renal, liver diseases, thyroid and parathyroid disorder excluded because of probability of these disease to be a reason of osteoporosis.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patient more than 18 years old classified as rheumatoid arthritis based on ACR/EULAR 2010 Classification criteria.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with other clinical conditions that causes secondary osteoporosis as Diabetes Mellitus, renal, liver diseases, thyroid and parathyroid disorders.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The percentage of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis who have Osteoporosis.
Time Frame: baseline
to explore the association between RA and osteoporosis and highlight the risk factors that RA patients have that may cause or affect osteoporosis progress by measuring the percentage of patents with RA who have osteoporosis.
baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Correlation between age, disease duration, disease activity, and treatment with osteoporosis
Time Frame: baseline
Correlation between age, disease duration, disease activity, and treatment with osteoporosis
baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

March 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 8, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 13, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

September 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

February 21, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 20, 2024

Last Verified

February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • RA&OP Relationship

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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