Rheumatoid Arthritis in Hospital Consultation in Guinea

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by polyarticular involvement with predominantly distal, peripheral, bilateral, symmetrical, erosive features and extra-articular manifestations. The objective of this study was to determine the epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the Rheumatology Department of the Ignace Deen National Hospital in Conakry. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study lasting 18 months from January 1, 2019 to June 18, 2020. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed on the basis of clinical and paraclinical arguments in accordance with the ACR/EULAR criteria (2010) were included in this study. Results: We collected 60 cases of RA, representing a hospital prevalence of 5.6%. The mean age of patients was 46.6 ± 17.35 years. Rheumatoid arthritis mainly affected adult women with 78.33%. Symptomatic treatment was dominated by the use of NSAIDs and corticosteroid therapy. MTX was the most used long-term treatment, representing 68.3%, with a therapeutic combination of MTX, HCQ and AIS with 65%. We recorded 23.3% of MTX-related side effects, followed by AIS 11.6% and HCQ 8.3%. After 3 months of treatment, 38.4% of patients had low disease activity and 23.3% were in remission. Conclusion: RA is a serious disease because it can affect the functional prognosis due to its joint consequences and the vital prognosis due to its visceral damage. Methotrexate and other conventional background treatments still have their place.