Study of serum calcium/phosphorus in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Rheumatoid arthritis is chronic multisystem disease of unknown etiology. Although there is variety of systemic manifestations, the characteristic feature of RA is persistent inflammatory synovitis, usually involving the peripheral joints in a systemic distribution. The potential of synovial inflammation to cause the cartilage damage and bone erosions and subsequent changes in the joints integrity is the hallmark of the diseases.

To estimate the serum Calcium/Phosphorus ratio in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients.

50 RA patients who were fulfilling the ARA-1987 revised criteria as cases and 50 age and sex matched apparently healthy persons as controls included in this study.

The estimated serum Calcium/Phosphorus ratio in cases is 1.51±0.35 as compared to control 2.85±0.5.

The decrease in serum calcium/phosphorus ratio indicated that, calcium and phosphorus metabolism is altered in RA.