Prevalence, types, clinical associations, and determinants of peripheral neuropathy in rheumatoid patients

BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis is a multi-system autoimmune disorder predominantly involving multiple small and large joints along with certain extra-articular manifestations. The presence of peripheral neuropathy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis contributes significantly to the functional limitation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence, types, and determinants of peripheral neuropathy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 74 patients with rheumatoid arthritis of at least 2 year duration for the presence of peripheral neuropathy both clinically and electrophysiologically. The data obtained were entered into a database and continuous variables were analyzed using the Student t test and categorical variables were analyzed using the chi-square test. RESULTS: Peripheral neuropathy was detected in 39.19% (29 out of 74 patients) patients on electrophysiologic testing and 82.76% (24 out of 29 patients) of the patients were asymptomatic. There was significant association between the presence of peripheral neuropathy and disease duration and rheumatoid factor positivity by the latex agglutination method. Sensory neuropathy was the most common form detected. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that subclinical peripheral neuropathy particularly sensory neuropathy which is not related to disease severity is very common in patients with prolonged disease duration.