[Functional ability and parameters of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis]

After the pain, the loss of functional ability is the most important sign of severity of the disease for patient who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our research is based on the correlation between functional disability with other parameters which determine the course of a disease, its activity and the level of its progression. The sample consists of 40 patients with RA, with mean age 56.67 + 10.1 and mean disease duration 11.1 + 7.69. We examined functional ability of the patient with Health Assessment Questionnaire-HAQ (0-3), pain with Visual Analogue Scale-VAS (0-100), duration of disease, acute phase reactant, morning stiffness, joint counts (28), Ritchie articulare index, radiographic changes and range of motion. Radiographic changes are measured with Short Erosion Scale--SES (Score 0-60), and range of motion with Numerical model of range of motion (1-5). A stronger correlation of HAQ was found with most of the disease activity parameters, but not with acute phaze reactant and the duration of disease. Strong correlation of HAQ exists with the number of tender joints (p < 0.001), number of swelling joints (p < 0.05), with VAS (p < 0.001), Ritchic articulare index (p < 0.001), morning stiffness (p < 0.01), range of motion (p < 0.001) and radiographic progression (p < 0.01). The received correlations say that duration of disease and lab, results do not have an influence on functional ability, but the increase of pain, radiographic progression of the disease and the reduction of range of motion influence aggravation of functional status. Drugs which lead to decrease of pain and radiographic progression, as well as physical therapy which increases range of motion will stop functional disability.