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Review
. 2021 Mar 25:13:45-55.
doi: 10.2147/OARRR.S298393. eCollection 2021.

Beyond Rheumatoid Arthritis Evaluation: What are We Missing?

Gianna Espinoza  1 , Genessis Maldonado  2 , Jemina Narvaez  1 , Roberto Guerrero  1 , Gustavo Citera  3 , Carlos Rios  1
Affiliations
Review

Beyond Rheumatoid Arthritis Evaluation: What are We Missing?

Gianna Espinoza et al. Open Access Rheumatol. .

Abstract

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune systemic disease that preferentially affects small and large joints with a progressive course and can become deforming and disabling. In recent years, much progress has been made in the evaluation of inflammation and disease activity, however, there are other factors that have a high impact on the quality of life of these patients, such as depression, anxiety, fatigue, sleep disorders, suicidal behavior, fibromyalgia, sexual activity, sarcopenia, frailty, cachexia and obesity that are not always evaluated by rheumatologists. This review shows that the evaluation and timely detection of these aspects in patients with RA could interfere with the prognosis and improve their quality of life.

Keywords: depression; fibromyalgia; quality of life; rheumatoid arthritis; sarcopenia; sexual activity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr Gustavo Citera report grants, personal fees from Pfizer, during the conduct of the study; grants, personal fees from Pfizer, outside the submitted work. The authors report no other conflicts of interests in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Impact of immune activation on the CNS and the relationship with depression.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Factors that affect the development of fatigue.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Factors influencing bone fragility in patients with RA.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proposed algorithm for an integral evaluation of a patient with RA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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