Natalia Mena-Vázquez, Fernando Ortiz-Márquez, Teresa Ramírez-García, Pablo Cabezudo-García, Aimara García-Studer, Arkaitz Mucientes-Ruiz, Jose Manuel Lisbona-Montañez, Paula Borregón-Garrido, Patricia Ruiz-Limón, Rocío Redondo-Rodríguez, Sara Manrique-Arija, Laura Cano-García, Pedro J Serrano-Castro, Antonio Fernández-Nebro
{"title":"Impact of inflammation on cognitive function in patients with highly inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis.","authors":"Natalia Mena-Vázquez, Fernando Ortiz-Márquez, Teresa Ramírez-García, Pablo Cabezudo-García, Aimara García-Studer, Arkaitz Mucientes-Ruiz, Jose Manuel Lisbona-Montañez, Paula Borregón-Garrido, Patricia Ruiz-Limón, Rocío Redondo-Rodríguez, Sara Manrique-Arija, Laura Cano-García, Pedro J Serrano-Castro, Antonio Fernández-Nebro","doi":"10.1136/rmdopen-2024-004422","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To evaluate cognitive function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and inflammatory activity.</p><p><strong>Patients and methods: </strong>We performed a cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients with RA initiating their first biological treatment due to moderate-to-high inflammation and a healthy control group (no inflammatory diseases) matched for age, sex and educational level. All participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, with cognitive impairment defined as a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score<26. Additional assessments included various cognitive tests (STROOP, forward and backward digit spans), anxiety and depression scales (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), quality of life measures (Quality of Life-Rheumatoid Arthritis) and average inflammatory activity according to the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28)-C-reactive protein (CRP) into high activity (DAS28≥3.2) and low activity (DAS28<3.2) groups, also CRP levels and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels were measured using an ELISA.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The study population comprised 140 participants, 70 patients with RA and 70 controls. Patients more frequently experienced cognitive impairment than controls (60% vs 40%; p=0.019) and had lower mean (SD) values in the MoCA (23.6 (3.9) vs 25.1 (3.4); p=0.019. As for subtests of the MoCA, involvement was more marked in patients than in controls for the visuospatial-executive (p=0.030), memory (p=0.026) and abstraction (p=0.039) domains. Additionally, patients scored lower on executive function, as assessed by the backward digit span test (4.0 (1.7) vs 4.7 (1.9); p=0.039). Cognitive impairment is associated with age and a lower educational level in the general population, and among patients with RA with educational level, obesity and average inflammatory activity (DAS28, CRP, and IL-6).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Patients with RA with high inflammatory activity are more susceptible to cognitive impairment, which specifically affects the domains of visuospatial, memory, abstraction and executive function.</p>","PeriodicalId":21396,"journal":{"name":"RMD Open","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"RMD Open","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2024-004422","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"RHEUMATOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate cognitive function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and inflammatory activity.
Patients and methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients with RA initiating their first biological treatment due to moderate-to-high inflammation and a healthy control group (no inflammatory diseases) matched for age, sex and educational level. All participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, with cognitive impairment defined as a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score<26. Additional assessments included various cognitive tests (STROOP, forward and backward digit spans), anxiety and depression scales (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), quality of life measures (Quality of Life-Rheumatoid Arthritis) and average inflammatory activity according to the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28)-C-reactive protein (CRP) into high activity (DAS28≥3.2) and low activity (DAS28<3.2) groups, also CRP levels and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels were measured using an ELISA.
Results: The study population comprised 140 participants, 70 patients with RA and 70 controls. Patients more frequently experienced cognitive impairment than controls (60% vs 40%; p=0.019) and had lower mean (SD) values in the MoCA (23.6 (3.9) vs 25.1 (3.4); p=0.019. As for subtests of the MoCA, involvement was more marked in patients than in controls for the visuospatial-executive (p=0.030), memory (p=0.026) and abstraction (p=0.039) domains. Additionally, patients scored lower on executive function, as assessed by the backward digit span test (4.0 (1.7) vs 4.7 (1.9); p=0.039). Cognitive impairment is associated with age and a lower educational level in the general population, and among patients with RA with educational level, obesity and average inflammatory activity (DAS28, CRP, and IL-6).
Conclusions: Patients with RA with high inflammatory activity are more susceptible to cognitive impairment, which specifically affects the domains of visuospatial, memory, abstraction and executive function.
期刊介绍:
RMD Open publishes high quality peer-reviewed original research covering the full spectrum of musculoskeletal disorders, rheumatism and connective tissue diseases, including osteoporosis, spine and rehabilitation. Clinical and epidemiological research, basic and translational medicine, interesting clinical cases, and smaller studies that add to the literature are all considered.