A STUDY OF LIPID CHANGES IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS

Abstract

Lipoprotein abnormalities are usually observed in chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.  The aim of the study  is  to determine the lipoprotein  abnormalities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 52 patients of rheumatoid arthritis of varying age groups are choosen for this study and 37 healthy people were taken for the control. The estimation of triglycerides  done by method adopted in Foster and Dunn. The  estimation of serum cholesterol was carried out  by using modified Zak’s method. The estimation of serum high density lipoproteins was done by phosphotungstate/ magnesium method.  The marked reduction of  cholesterol, HDL, LDL, VLDL  were noticed in rheumatoid arthritis patients with significant    p-values  compared to normal values  in control groups. The study concluded that  hypolipoproteinemia in rheumatoid arthritis may be due to anemia. The hypolipidimiae may be caused by general debilitating  illness found in rheumatoid arthritis causing cachexia, which in turn may cause hypoproteinimiae.