Tobacco link to arthritis
Tuesday December 14th, 2010
Tobacco smoking may lie behind many cases of severe rheumatoid arthritis, researchers warn today.
More than a third of these cases may be caused by the use of cigarettes, according to a Swedish study.
People who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day were found to be two and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with a severe form of the disease as other people, according to the research in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
The findings come from comparing some 1,200 people with rheumatoid arthritis with another 871 healthy people.
Researchers used blood samples to test for a substance ACPA - anticitrullinated protein/peptide antibody - which indicates severe disease.
They say that smoking was responsible for 20 per cent of all cases of rheumatoid arthritis and - and 35 per cent of the most serious.
Researcher Dr Henrik Kallberg, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, reports: "Although this risk is not as high as for lung cancer, where smoking accounts for 90 per cent of cases, it is similar to that for coronary artery heart disease."
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases December 14 2010 doi 10.1136
Tags: Drug and Alcohol Abuse | Europe | Rheumatology
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