Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis yesterday and today

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that mainly affects joints. It is the most common form of inflammatory joint disease, and the second commonest joint disease, osteoarthritis being the commonest. The overall prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis has generally been given as 1% - with females outnumbering males in a ratio of 3-4:1, although there is some evidence that the incidence of the disease is decreasing. 1 Apart from this, the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis is not the same throughout the world. It is quite rare in less developed rural parts of the world - thus one study in Nigeria failed to find one single case.2 Studies in Europe have shown that there is a gradient in the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis, starting from a low prevalence in the South (e.g. Italy 0.31%)3 to a higher prevalence in the North (e.g. Finland 0.8%)4 While no formal epidemiological studies on rheumatoid arthritis have been carried out in Malta, a total of approximately 600 patients with the disease are followed up at the Rheumatology Clinic at St. Luke's Hospital, giving a prevalence of 0.16%.