Epidemiology and outcome of adult-onset Still's disease in Northwestern Thrace region in Turkey

Abstract

Objectives: Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare disease that is classified among the multifactorial autoinflammatory disorders. It is characterised by fever, arthritis and, a typical salmon-coloured rash, and is accompanied by fever at nights. Currently, there is limited data on the prevalence of AOSD.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with AOSD at the Department of Rheumatology of Trakya University Medical Faculty, between 2003 to 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients' clinical features, laboratory measurements, demographics, treatments, follow-up durations, disease courses, outcomes and complications were evaluated.

Results: Our study included 42 patients with AOSD of whom, 32 (76.2%) were females and 10 (23.8%) were males (female to male ratio: 3.2). Over the course of the study, the annual incidence of AOSD was 0.62/100,000; and the overall prevalence was 6.77/100,000. The most common findings were fever (97.6%), arthralgia (95.2%), arthritis (76.2%), rash (73.8%) and sore throat (40.5%).

Conclusions: In our hospital-based study on AOSD which is a disease with very limited epidemiological data, the frequency of AOSD was found to be significantly higher than in other series. Female gender was more common in our series; and polycyclic pattern was more common in patients with longer follow-ups.