Pneumonia in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients | ||||
The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine | ||||
Article 4, Volume 70, Issue 2, January 2018, Page 210-214 PDF (343.02 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.12816/0043078 | ||||
View on SCiNiTO | ||||
Authors | ||||
Mohammed Jamal Alofaisan1; Walaa Ali H Alkhalifah2; Mohammed Ahmed Yahya Alyamani3; Ali Hussain A ALDawod4; Burir Mansour Al Jassas5; Rana Mohammed M Nourah6; Afaf Meshal Almjlad7; Hassan Ali A Al-Mubarak4; Sulaiman Alaa S Hanbazazah6; Abdulhameed Ibrahim Alabdulhadi1; Esra Mohammed Omar Alsayed8; Bassam Adel Aljabri9 | ||||
1King Faisal university | ||||
2Alexandria university | ||||
3Imam Muhammad ibn Saud University | ||||
4Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal university | ||||
5University of Dammam ( Imam Abdurahman Bin Faisal University now ) | ||||
6King Abdulaziz University | ||||
7Northern Border University | ||||
8Jazan university | ||||
9Umm Al-qura universiy | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics of pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) between patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) being treated with biologics and those being treated without biologics. Methods: From 220 patients with RA in our institution, we enrolled 12 patients who had developed pneumocystis pneumonia throughout the course of their management. They were divided into two groups according to the treatment they were receiving for rheumatoid arthritis: the biologics group (n = 6) and the nonbiologics group (n = 6). Clinical characteristics of pneumocystis pneumonia were compared between the two groups. Results: At pneumocystis pneumonia diagnosis, the biologics group showed significantly lower serum levels of β-D-glucan and C-reactive protein than the nonbiologics group, whereas the biologics group had significantly higher lymphocyte counts than the nonbiologics group. In the nonbiologics group, lower lymphocyte counts were associated with higher β-D-glucan levels; nonetheless, this was not witnessed in the biologics group. Conclusion: The finding that rheumatoid arthritis patients being treated with biologics developed pneumocystis pneumonia with relatively normal lymphocyte counts and lower β-D-glucan levels suggests that the pathophysiology of pneumocystis pneumonia in those patients is different from that in patients being treated with other antirheumatic drugs. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Rheumatoid Arthritis; Inflammatory Disorder; pneumonia | ||||
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