Carshalton specialist awarded grant for arthritis research
A Carshalton hospital specialist has been awarded a grant from a leading medical research charity for work aimed at helping patients with the potentially crippling condition of rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Sanjeev Patel, consultant rheumatologist and senior lecturer at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, will look at whether patients with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to break bones because of a fall, or because their bones are thinner than those of healthy people.
Dr Patel has been awarded a 12-month grant of £18,127 from the Arthritis Research Campaign, the UK's fifth-biggest medical research charity.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an incurable, inflammatory joint disease which affects around 600,000 people in the UK, and usually starts between the ages of 30 and 50.
"Osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis are common problems, and patients with rheumatoid arthritis have an extra reason to have osteoporosis, as joint inflammation can cause brittle bones," explained Dr Patel.
"This results in rheumatoid arthritis patients having an increased risk of fracturing bones from a fairly slight knock. Another important contributory factor is likely to be an increased risk of falling, among these patients. Although we suspect this is the case, there are no studies which specifically examine the risk of falls in rheumatoid arthritis patients."
Dr Patel hopes to establish which risk factor is more important in leading to broken bones, particularly hip fractures. If he can establish that falls are the more likely cause, changes in clinical practice and management would have to be introduced.
Arthritis is the single biggest cause of disability in the UK, affecting around eight million people in the UK. The Arthritis Research Campaign is the only medical research charity solely dedicated to finding the cure for and cause of all forms of arthritis.
