Abstract
Chronic inflammatory rheumatism is a pathology of variable frequency and severity with a significant impact on the socio-economic, personal and family level. Study Aim: To describe the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, radiological, therapeutic and evolutive features of chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases in rheumatological practice in Togo. Patients and Methods: This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted from January 2011 to December 2019 on patients examined in the three rheumatology departments in Lomé (Togo). Patients 18 years old and above who have presented joint pain with or without synovitis, and/or rachialgia (back pain) for at least three months were included. The diagnosis of chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases was made according to international consensus criteria. Results: Out of the 20333 patients whose files were collected during our study period, 290 (1.43%) suffered from chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases. There were 226 (77.93%) females and 64 (22.07%) males. The mean age of the patients was 42.79 ± 15.18 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 40.80 ± 54.09 months. Arthritis (67.24%) was the main reason for consultation, followed by joint pain (31.38%). rheumatoid arthritis (41.03%), unclassified chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (38.62%), spondyloarthropathies (15.17%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (2.41%) were the major clinical forms. The immunological tests performed in 13.79% of cases were positive in 52.94% of cases. Carpitis (57.55%) and diffuse osteoporosis (45.28%) were the commonest radiographic features of the hands. 289 patients (99.66%) received symptomatic treatments such as NSAIDs (73.36%) and corticosteroids (51.90%) and 90 patients (31.03%) were treated with synthetic DMARDs such as methotrexate (88.89%). The outcome was favorable in 27.93% of cases. Conclusion: Chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases are common diseases in rheumatological practice in Togo that deserve special attention. The establishment of a specialized immunology laboratory could be very useful for the diagnosis and early management of these diseases.
Highlights
Chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (CIRDs) are conditions that exhibit an autoimmune and/or autoinflammatory process as pathogenic mechanism
Very little information is available about these diseases due to the scarcity of studies conducted on them, which might be associated to the poor coverage of the African continent in terms of physician specialists and well equipped rheumatology and immunology units [5] [6]
Out of the 20333 patient files collected during our study period, 290 patients suffered from CIRD, with an incidence of 1.43%
Summary
Chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases (CIRDs) are conditions that exhibit an autoimmune and/or autoinflammatory process as pathogenic mechanism. They constitute a public health issue in developed countries [1] [2]. Very little information is available about these diseases due to the scarcity of studies conducted on them, which might be associated to the poor coverage of the African continent in terms of physician specialists and well equipped rheumatology and immunology units [5] [6]. The aim of our work was to determine in a larger population of rheumatic patients, the distribution as well as the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, radiological, therapeutic and evolutive features of the different CIRDs observed in the rheumatology units of Lomé
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