[acb-diabetics] rheumatic arthic may make people mor liable to becoming diabetic

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

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After analyzing the data, researchers found that the relative risk for
diabetes was increased by approximately 50 percent in patients with RA or
psoriatic

arthritis compared to people who don't have these diseases. 

 

In the study, researchers mined a database in British Columbia, Canada, for
medical records collected between 1996 and 2006. They then compared the data

on 48,718 RA patients, 40,346 patients with psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis
and 442,033 patients who had no known rheumatic diseases, to see how their

risks of developing diabetes differed. Patients were classified as diabetic
if they'd been prescribed at least one diabetic medication or received a
diagnosis

of diabetes.

 

Study author Daniel Solomon, MD,  from the Division of Rheumatology at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, explained that, "With psoriatic
arthritis,

it's been known there's an increased risk of diabetes, so in some respects,
our psoriatic cohort was our positive control group. Finding the increased

risk in psoriatics confirmed that our method was sound.... With RA we didn't
really know what to expect because there hasn't been a rigorous study
focusing

on this issue." Dr. Solomon says the risk of getting diabetes increases with
age and body mass index, and it's likely another condition, along with heart

disease, lung disease, osteoporosis and some kinds of cancer, that people
with RA are at increased risk for. But he says this study isn't saying RA
patients

should worry that they will definitely get it.

 

"Patients with RA shouldn't say, 'Oh my goodness. Now I'm at risk.' Most of
us are at risk of diabetes," Dr. Solomon says. "But they are at an increased

risk. It's another reason for staying slim and active." 

 

Dr. Solomon says he did find one surprise: The increased diabetes risk in
these patients does not result from steroid use. Corticosteroids are known
to

cause diabetes in people who use them long-term.

 

"Most people say of course, people with RA use steroids and therefore that's
why they have this increased risk," Dr. Solomon says. "But we stratified on

steroid use and we found similar risk in people with RA who are users and
non-users. That doesn't seem to be a reason for the elevated risk."

 

Other experts say they are surprised to see that steroids didn't play a role
in the elevated risk.

 

Meenakshi Jolly, MD, a rheumatologist at Rush University Medical Center in
Chicago, stated, "I would have thought people using more steroids are
usually

the people who have more active disease. That means they had inflammation
going on a long time and I would have guessed they would have more diabetes,

and they didn't find it, which is interesting." 

 

Dr. Solomon says the exact cause of the increased diabetes risk is not
known. His study didn't attempt to solve that mystery, but he speculates
it's connected

to inflammation and possibly inactivity.

 

"One hypothesis is that the inflammation of RA is associated with insulin
resistance -- the body doesn't process insulin correctly," Dr. Solomon says.

 

The link is not entirely understood, but when patients have rheumatoid
arthritis, the immune system gets confused and attacks the joints and other
organs,

instead of defending them. If the organ that's attacked is the pancreas,
where insulin is made, it can lead to scarring and decreased production of
insulin,

which may lead to diabetes. 

 

Even though the link is not fully understood, Dr. Solomon says that there
may be a message here for doctors who care for RA patients: "It's worthwhile
for

doctors to screen for diabetes in patients with RA."

 

Online edition of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, June 28, 2010  

 

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