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If you have RA, make sure your doc checks your kidneys. Find out why… next
RA Puts Kidneys at Risk
Marianne Wait writing for Arthritis Today reported people with rheumatoid arthritis
(RA) are almost 5 percent more likely than other people to develop reduced kidney function,
a sign of chronic kidney disease, according to a study published recently in the American
Journal of Kidney Diseases. Although that figure may not sound high, senior
study author Eric Matteson, MD, chair of the rheumatology department at Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn., says it’s significant. “It’s a big deal when you think there’s
1.5 million patients with RA, and how frequent kidney disease is becoming in the population.”
This study looked at the health records of 1,623 people – 813 people who were diagnosed
with rheumatoid arthritis between 1980 and 2007 and 813 people without RA who were similar
in terms of age, gender, weight and other factors. Among those who had normal kidney
function when they entered the study, 25 percent of those with RA and 20 percent of those without
RA developed mildly or moderately reduced kidney function over 20 years. There was no
difference in the rate of severe kidney dysfunction. RA patients who had high levels of inflammation
in the first year after RA diagnosis (as measured by the blood test known as erythrocyte sedimentation
rate, or “sed rate”) were more likely than others to develop reduced kidney function.
“The general conclusion from that is that inflammation is a risk factor for renal dysfunction,”
says Dr. Matteson. Comment: The risk is not impressive at first
glance but it is significant.