Page 87 - THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY ARTHRITIS AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK Samina A. Turk
P. 87

AN UNFAVORABLE BODY COMPOSITION
The strengths of this study include a good match with an excellent population cohort,
the large sample size for both males and females. Unfortunately, no widely accepted definition of a low muscle mass for age exists(55). Nevertheless, both muscle mass and
muscle strength are probably a main component. A limitation of the current study is that
no assessments of muscle strength and physical performance were done. Therefore, we
defined our own definition for sarcopenia low muscle mass for age, based on the muscle
mass of the non-arthritis control group, so our main question could still be answered
as we focussed on the difference between patients and non-arthritis controls. Another limitation is the possibility of selection bias, as the selection was inherently different
between arthritis patients and non-arthritis controls. The subjects were selected from 4 different locations, which can give differences in demographics. However, we matched
on age, gender and ethnicity and added the values of body composition after the matching to limit this bias. Another aspect are the DXA machines that were utilized. The arthritis patients and the non-arthritis controls are measured in different DXA machines and the machines were not directly calibrated.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, unfavorable body composition occurs early in the development of inflammatory arthritis, and this was associated with an increased CV risk. Therefore, we suggest that CV risk management should already be initiated at disease onset.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  This work was supported by the Rotterdam Study.
 The authors are grateful to the study participants, the nurses, the participating general practitioners and pharmacists and the staff from the Rotterdam Study (particularly Hannie van J. Van den Boogert - de Visser, Frank van Rooij, Katerina Trajanoska and Fernando Rivadeneira for the acquisition and provision of the DXA data).
  85



















































































   85   86   87   88   89