"Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Face Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease"

Samsung Seoul Hospital and Kosin University Hospital Joint Study
Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients 71% Higher Compared to Non-Patients

A warning has been issued that rheumatoid arthritis, which mainly occurs in middle-aged and older women, increases the risk of Parkinson's disease.

A joint research team led by Professor Dongwook Shin from the Department of Family Medicine at Samsung Medical Center, Professor Hyeongjin Kim from the Rheumatology Department at the International Medical Center, and Professor Jihoon Kang from the Department of Family Medicine at Kosin University Gospel Hospital tracked and observed over 320,000 people aged 40 and above who underwent national health screening from 2010 to 2017, confirming the association between rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease, the team announced on the 15th.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which an error in the body's immune system attacks itself, causing inflammation within the joints and continuous joint destruction. The research team compared the risk of Parkinson's disease occurrence between two groups: 54,680 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 273,400 people without rheumatoid arthritis as the control group.

As a result, the risk of developing Parkinson's disease in the rheumatoid arthritis patient group was 74% higher than that of the control group. Professor Dongwook Shin explained, "This means that the risk of Parkinson's disease should be considered in patients with rheumatoid arthritis," adding, "If motor neurological symptoms appear, timely consultation with a neurology specialist should be ensured."

Additionally, patients with 'seropositive rheumatoid arthritis,' who tested positive for rheumatoid factor, had a 95% higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared to the control group. Generally, about 80% of rheumatoid arthritis patients are seropositive, and in this study, 71.3% of the total patients fell into this category. This indicates that a significant number of rheumatoid arthritis patients are exposed to the risk of Parkinson's disease.

In particular, seropositive patients had a 61% higher risk of Parkinson's disease than seronegative patients. Professor Jihoon Kang said, "This large-scale cohort study is significant as it not only shows that rheumatoid arthritis increases the risk of Parkinson's disease but also quantitatively analyzes the risk of Parkinson's disease in seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis for the first time."

Furthermore, the research team compared differences between patients using conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (tsDMARDs) and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Patients using conventional antirheumatic drugs still showed a 71% higher risk of Parkinson's disease compared to the control group, whereas patients using biological agents showed no significant difference from the control group. Professor Hyeongjin Kim stated, "The increased risk of Parkinson's disease in rheumatoid arthritis appears to be influenced by neuroinflammation that can occur in rheumatoid arthritis," adding, "However, since the group using biological agents did not show a high risk of Parkinson's disease, further research is needed."

This study was published in the latest issue of 'JAMA Neurology (IF=29.907),' a top journal in the field of neurology published by the American Medical Association.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.