Foot problems 'increase in early rheumatoid arthritis'
Joint erosion in the feet increases in the first eight years of rheumatoid arthritis, according to a new study published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research.
Scientists from the Jan van Breemen Institute in the Netherlands studied 848 rheumatoid arthritis patients in the early stages of their diseases from 1995 to the present.
Patients were assessed every year, and pain and swelling of the metatarsophalangeal joints (the joints between the bones of the foot and the bones of the toes) were recorded.
In addition, the researchers analysed the space between the joints and erosion of the joints, and asked questions on walking ability.
Results showed that pain and swelling of the metatarsophalangeal joints occurred in 70 per cent of the patients at the beginning of the study, decreasing to 40-50 per cent in two years.
Similarly, walking disability initially rose and then stabilised, dropping from 57 per cent of patients at baseline to 40 per cent in one year.
However, forefoot joint erosion rose from 19 per cent of patients to 60 per cent after eight years.
"The prevalence rates for pain and swelling of the [metatarsophalangeal] joints and walking disability are initially high and then stabilise, but the prevalence and severity of forefoot joint damage increase during an eight-year course of [rheumatoid arthritis]," the researchers concluded.
They added: "The findings of this study quantitatively emphasise the importance of forefoot involvement in patients with [the disease]."
The Arthritis Research Campaign is funding a major programme of research at Glasgow Caledonian and Leeds Universities to improve the treatment of painful feet in rheumatoid arthritis.
"More than 90 per cent of patients with RA have foot involvement, but feet remain a woefully neglected area in many hospitals," added a spokesman.
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