Papers of the Week

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, symmetric, systemic inflammatory polyarthritis of unknown etiology. It primarily affects small diarthrodial joints of hand and has higher prevalence in women just like any other autoimmune disease. Metabolic Syndrome (MS) is a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors with insulin resistance as a core manifestation. Dyslipidemia, central obesity and hypertension form the other manifestations. Both the disorders share the common pathophysiology which centres around chronic systemic inflammation. High plasma levels or TNF and interleukins are found in both. The present work is a modest attempt to study the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its correlation with disease activity.