Quantification of foot lesion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and relationship with patients’ background factors

Abstract

    To evaluate the foot lesion of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, we quantified the clinical findings of foot lesion (symptom, deformity, callus, infection) by the “foot care score". We also analyzed the relationship between the "foot care score" and their background factors (age, disease duration, class, stage, disease activity score, HAQ-DI, VAS for pain). The total score was significantly higher as the class progressed. The total score had significant correlation with age and disease duration, and strongly associated with HAQ-DI. There were also following correlations: symptoms with DAS28-CRP and HAQ-DI; deformity with disease duration; and infection with age and HAQ-DI. There was a significant correlation with callus score and deformity score. Infection score of biologics group was significantly higher than that of non-biologics group. The association of foot lesions in RA patients with their background factors was revealed by application of our foot care score. Future study should be directed to investigate the effectiveness, limitations and target value of intervention by foot care, in order to improve patients' satisfaction.