Treatment come in Rheumatology clinic, Lampang Hospital

Abstract

There are many patients with arthritic disease who are not diagnosed and treated properly due to the lack of specialists in rheumatology and the change of new treatment modality. The objective is to study the type of the disease, the incidence, and the treatment outcome by Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatic outpatient clinic, Lampang Hospital. A one year retrospective study was done during October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006. The results demomstrated 270 patients who were diagnosed into following diseases : 109 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 31 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 4 case of undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD), 24 cases of scleroderma, 1 case of polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), 12 cases of spondyloarthropathy, 23 cases of gout, 16 vases of osteoarthritis, 10 cases of Overlap Syndrome, 10 cases of Polymyositis, 6 cases of Myofacial pain syndrome, 5 cases of Psoriatic Arthritis, 5 cases of L-C spondylosis and 2 cases of Juvenile rheumatiod Arthritis.
Among Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. There were female to more than male (ratio was 3.4 : 1.0 ) and the most common age was found in the range of 41-60 yeas. Most patients had the history of more than 1-year disease and the disease was still active.
After the treatment of DMARDS with the average of 2 drugs, 54.3% of the patients can archive the remission of the disease.
In conclusion, the early diagnosis and proper management give the good treatment outcome and reduce the morbidity of the patients. Hence, the general practices should keep the update of the knowledge and the practical skill in the management of these rheumatic patients. The increased training of the rheumatologic specialists is also mandatory in improving the care of the patients.