Introduction:

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis present a high prevalence of osteoporosis, partly due to the use of glucocorticoids. However, there are other causal factors.

Material and methods:

122 women diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis were studied. Serum hemoglobin concentrations were determined and bone densitometry carried out by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine the association of the variables studied.

Results:

32.8% of the women studied presented hemoglobin <12 g/dL. The mean T-score in the lumbar spine was -1.8±1.5; 36.9% had a low bone mass, 32.8% osteoporosis criteria and 30.3% normal T-score. The mean of the femur T-score was -0.6±1.4; 63.9% was normal value, 23.8% presented low bone mass and 12.3% criterion of osteoporosis. Hemoglobin ≥12 g/dL and a bone mineral density (BMD) of the normal femur (p=0.003), and between hemoglobin <12 g/dL and BMD of femur with osteoporosis (p<0.000). There was an independent association between osteoporosis and body mass index <30 kg/m2 (OR=4.1, 95% CI: 1.4-11.4, p=0.009) and the presence of anemia (OR=8.9, 95% CI: 3.7-22.4, p=0.001).

Conclusions:

In our study, we observed an association between anemia and low bone mineral density in women with RA mainly in the region femoral, which indicates that adequate and timely management of anemia is important in these patients.

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