Enteroparasitoses in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Patients with rheumatic diseases have profound alterations in the immune system as a result of underlying diseases and the treatments used, which increases the risk of occurrence and severity of infections, including enteroparasitosis. The current treatment for rheumatoid arthritis involves immunosuppressive therapies powerfully needed for screening infectious processes. The prevalence of parasitic infections in rheumatoid arthritis patients is not currently documented in literature. The objective of the current study was to determine the prevalence of parasitic diseases in a population with RA. Methods: We collected demographic and socioeconomic data from 67 patients at the Hospital Universitario de Brasilia from July 2015 to April 2016. All patients underwent a parasitological examination of their stool and multiple variables were analyzed using Poisson regression method. Results: The mean age of patients was 53.9 years. They were predominantly in women (94%) and caucasian (47.8%). The mean disease duration was 9.2 years and most patients had the disease in remission or light activity. The prevalence of parasitic infections in these patients was 11.9%, all cases being that of protozoa of the following species: Endolimax nana, Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba coli. The final multivariate analysis indicated that the presence of disease had a significant statistical relationship between the presence of enteroparasitosis and rheumatoid arthritis with no fatigue by VAS (p = 0.0488) and best current health index by VAS (p = 0.0012). Conclusion: This study indicates that the prevalence of enteroparasitoses in a population with Rheumatoid Arthritis was 11.9% and all cases were found of protozoa.