Even before they reach menopause, women with Rheumatoid Arthritis show a significant degree of bone loss compared with similar but arthritis-free women, according to new study findings..

Determining the effect of rheumatoid arthritis on bone loss is difficult because the disease typically afflicts women who are approaching or well into menopause, for whom estrogen deficiency could have a major confounding effect.

To sort this out, Dr. Tatiana Freitas Tourinho and colleagues, from Fundacao Federal Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas in Porto Alegre, Brazil, confined their analysis to 78 pre-menopausal women with Rheumatoid Arthritis and 39 healthy “controls” without arthritis.

Eighty-two percent of the patients were Caucasian with an average age of 35.5 years and had had arthritis for an average of 48 months. Seventy-four percent of the patients had been treated with glucocorticoids, the team reports in the Journal of Rheumatology.

The average bone mineral density of the spine in the women with arthritis was significantly lower than that in the controls, the researchers note.

Factors linked to low bone density included “no physical activity at work,” low body weight, and the longer duration of glucocorticoid therapy.

“The identification of prognostic markers for bone loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis should not only prompt early therapeutic intervention, but also facilitate early preventive measures,” the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of Rheumatology, June 2005.