USE OF ANTIBIOTICS AND RISK OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: POPULATION-BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Mr.Mrutyunjaya Bhanja
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kalinga University, Raipur
Investigators were able to identify antibiotic-induced microbiome which changes into chronic autoimmune diseases. The study took antibiotics related with rheumatoid arthritis. Nested case-control study by the Primary Care clinical practices Research Datalink. We followed patients with a new diagnosis of RA between 1995 to 2017. We matched controls who were at least five without having rheumatoid arthritis in age, gender, and general practice for every patient. We analyzed the association of antibiotic prescriptions with rheumatoid arthritis using conditional logistic regression. We identified 22,677 patients with RA and 90,013 controls with a median follow-up time of 10 years before diagnosis. The exposure to antibiotics increased the risk of RA by 60% at an odds ratio of 1.60 (95% CI 1.51–1.68).
 We linked RA to previous antibiotics based on dose or number. All antibiotics increased the risks of RA, but most were bactericidal (45% vs. 31%). Antibiotic prescriptions for upper respiratory tract infections increased RA risk. This was not seen with antibiotic-free upper respiratory tract infections. Antifungal and antiviral medication prescriptions increased RA incidence (OR = 1.27; 95% CI 1.20–1.35). Antibiotics increase rheumatoid arthritis risk. Disruptions in the microbiota or pathogenic infections might play a role.  More work is required to elucidate mechanisms.

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