Rheumatoid arthritis increases risk of Parkinson's disease by 1.74 folds
Republic of Korea: An Original Investigation published in JAMA Neurology, entitled "Rheumatoid Arthritis and Risk of Parkinson's Disease in Korea", written by Jihun Kang, MD, PhD with colleagues, has mentioned that among physicians, there should be awareness of the elevated risk of Parkinson's Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients.
The researchers have addressed a crucial concern, saying, it is essential to consider prompt referral to a neurologist at the onset of early motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease or PD without synovitis.
Researchers have previously postulated that chronic inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis is related to Parkinson's disease development, but this requires more data and evaluation.
An important question is whether there is any association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Parkinson's disease risk.
Researching this background further, they did a cohort study, including 54 680 RA patients and 273 400 without RA.
They used the Korean National Health Insurance Service database to collect relevant data. The patients enrolled were followed up for 4.3 years following a 1-year lag.
One hundred nineteen thousand seven hundred eighty-eight patients diagnosed with RA (83 064 with seropositive RA [SPRA], 36 724 with seronegative RA [SNRA]) were identified during the study period. They included those who underwent a national health checkup within two years before the RA diagnosis date (64 457 patients). After applying exclusion criteria, 54 680 patients with 39 010 with SPRA and 15 670 with SNRA were included.
Newly diagnosed PD was the primary outcome measured by the team in the study.
The study could be summarised as follows:
- 328 080 patients of mean age 58.6 years, constituting 74.9% female and 25.1% male, were included in the study.
- Parkinson's disease developed in 1093 patients. Eight hundred-three were controls, and 290 had Rheumatoid Arthritis.
- RA patients had a 1.74-fold higher risk of PD than controls.
- SPRA patients had a higher chance of PD with an adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] of 1.95; 95% CI.
- This was not reported in SNRA patients with aHR of 1.20.
- Compared with the SNRA group, those with SPRA had a higher risk of PD with aHR, 1.61
They said RA patients had a 1.74-fold higher risk of PD. The seropositivity of RA augmented PD risk more than seronegative RA patients.
Further reading:
Kang J, Eun Y, Jang W, et al. Rheumatoid Arthritis and Risk of Parkinson Disease in Korea. JAMA Neurol. Published online May 01, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.0932
