CASE COMMUNICATION
IMAJ | volume 25
Journal 10, October 2023
pages: 696-697
Elderly Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis in a 97-year-old Man
1 Department of Medicine, Federal University of Bahia Recôncavo, Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil
2 Department of Pediatrics, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
3 Department of Internal Medicine and Diagnostic Support, Medical School, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Summary
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovitis leading to polyarthritis. It affects 1% of the population [1]. Genetic and environmental factors are linked to the development of RA and include the presence of HLA-DR4 and shared epitope, and smoking is the primary representative of the negative environmental factor [1].
However, RA mainly affects middle age. Late-onset RA that initiates after 60 years is sometimes named elderly onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA) [2]. This disease's prevalence varied from 2.03% to 2.34% in a large study in the United States. EORA affects more women than men [1]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no patient description of RA initiated at 97 years of age has been described.