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Muscle strength and bone mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine (BMDspine) and femoral neck (BMDfem) were determined in 20 healthy women and in 20 women with recent onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The mean duration of articular symptoms of the patients was eleven months and none of them had used glucocorticoids or disease modifying antirheumatic drugs. BMDs were measured by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Knee extension, trunk extension, and flexion as well as grip strength were measured with David 200 and Digitest dynamometers. BMDspine (1.17 g/cm2 and 1.20 g/cm2) and BMDfem (0.98 g/cm2 and 0.96 g/cm2) between the women with early RA and healthy women did not differ. However, knee extension strength was 46%, grip strength 31%, trunk extension strength 14% and overall muscle strength index 29% lower in RA women (p < 0.020-0.001) than in healthy subjects. Femoral neck BMD correlated statistically significantly with knee extension strength and muscle strength index in both groups and with trunk extension and flexion strength as well as rapid force development in RA women. The data indicates that the loss of muscle strength is clearly visible during the first months of disease but the significant bone loss at central bone regions develops later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine treatment induced changes in health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA)., Methods: Changes in HR-QoL were assessed by the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) instrument in 62 consecutive working age patients with recent onset RA with duration of symptoms of less than two years and naive with regard to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and glucocorticoids. Treatment-response was assessed by the criteria of the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR; 28-joint score; DAS28) at 6 months., Results: NHP mean scores for pain (p=0.029) and emotional reaction (p=0.035) at baseline were related to EULAR response at 6 months, i.e. non-responders had the poorest baseline HR-QoL scores. When the patients were grouped according to EULAR response at 6 months there was a statistically significant mean linear change to better HR-QoL in NHP energy (p=0.0023), pain (p<0.001) and mobility (p=0.0085) from baseline to 6 months from the lowest to highest treatment-response level., Conclusion: Our results show that good treatment-response as measured by the EULAR response criteria translates into improved HR-QoL dimensions for energy, pain and mobility.