Rheumatoid arthritis in Lebanese patients: characteristics in a tertiary referral centre in Beirut city

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a worldwide inflammatory joint disease with variable degrees of joint damage and extra articular manifestations (EAMs). Several studies have shown that the disease is less severe and has fewer EAMs in Mediterranean countries than in other geographical areas.1–3 In Lebanon, there are no reliable data on its characteristics. Because differences in the clinical features require different practice guidelines, it is necessary to assess our population. We describe here the disease in a cohort of Lebanese patients with RA in our tertiary university hospital in the capital, Beirut. We identified 97 patients with RA, above the age of 18, in the outpatient clinics of the rheumatology department over a 1 year period, starting March 2001. They all fulfilled the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) revised …