Abstract
Objective: To research distribution of etiologies modification of arthritis in Congo-Brazzaville, twenty years after the first reports. Methods: A cross sectional study has been achieved. Medical files of patients admitted for arthritis between 2000 and 2014, in Rheumatology department of Brazzaville university teaching hospital have been included. Among 416 patients listed as cases of arthritis, 201 answered to the inclusion criterias have been kept for analysis. The etiological diagnoses were based on criterias of classification and/or diagnosis used in Rheumatology. Results: 201 patients, 110 men (54.72%) and 91 women (45.28%) were included. The sex-ratio was 1.2, and average age was 45.5 years old (extremes: 8-86 years). Among them, 72 patients had microcrystal arthritis. Septic arthritis and those associated with HIV constituted the second etiological group of 60 patients and respectively, 32 were bacterial and 28 HIV associated arthritis. 58 remaining patients had a chronic inflammatory arthritis. Etiology distribution showed that gout was the most frequent (33.83%), followed by septic arthritis (15.92%), HIV associated arthritis (13.93%) and rheumatoid arthritis (11.94%). In 11 patients (5.5%), etiology was unknown. Conclusion: Three decades after the first publications in Brazzaville, the etiologies of arthritis remain dominated in order of frequency by gout, septic arthritis and HIV associated arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The frequency of indeterminate arthritis decreased significantly. Spondy-loarthropathy and autoimmune diseases are more common diagnosis.
Highlights
The etiologies of arthritis in sub-Saharan Africa are better reported since three decades [1]-[3]
The criterias of diagnosis and classification permitted to identify five groups (Figure 1 and Figure 2): microcrystal arthritis 72 cases (35.82%); chronic inflammatory rheumatisms 58 patients (28.85%); septic arthritis 32 cases (15.92%); human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated arthritis 28 patients (13.93%); indeterminate arthritis 11 cases (5.47%)
Gout observed in 68 cases (33.83%), constituted the first etiology of arthritis
Summary
The etiologies of arthritis in sub-Saharan Africa are better reported since three decades [1]-[3]. (2016) Etiologies of Arthritis in Sub-Saharan Africa Rheumatology Practice. The training of more numerous African rheumatologists, creation of rheumatology departments and disposing an improved technical tray (computed tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging, blood-immunological evaluation) have modified the panorama of arthritis in sub-Saharan Africa. In Brazzaville (Congo) in 1994, three etiologies of arthritis predominated in a report set of 473 cases, covering a period of six years. It was about septic arthritis, HIV associated arthritis and gout. It appeared opportune to us, in the same methodological conditions and the same environment of practice, to determine the etiologies of rheumatic arthritis in order to measure their frequency, identify possible modifications of frequency and to determine the part of indeterminate arthritis
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