Abstract

SMOKING AND RHEUMATOID FACTOR LEVEL: ASSOCIATION WITH DEVELOPMENT OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN KHARTOUM, SUDAN

Isra Elabbas Abdelrahaman Khalifa, Mohamed Mahmoud Khidr*, Rasha Elbushra Abdulhameed, Amal Salah, Doaa Nasralldeen, Eman Mohamed, Essra Rahmtallah, Tahany Mohammed

Abstract

The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been associated with cigarettes smoking. The aim of our study was to demonstrate the influence of cigarettes smoking on the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis disease. Rheumatoid factor (RF) analysis for 118 male students and laboratory assistance (73 smokers and 45 controls) in The National Ribat University, Faculty of Medical laboratory Sciences, Khartoum, Sudan was carried out using latex card (qualitative method). For comparison purpose, 25 random selected samples from smoker participants were further measured by Mindary technique (quantitative method). The results revealed that 3 (4.2%) of smokers showed a visible agglutination (positive RF results) by latex card and 3 (4.4%) controls were confirmed positive as well. This study was not sufficiently large enough to allow analysis of certain confounding variables in relation to disease onset and prognosis. Therefore, more studies with larger number of samples are much needed to strongly confirm the association between smoking and the onset of rheumatoid arthritis in Sudan.

Keywords: Cigarettes smoking, Rheumatoid factor, Rheumatoid arthritis, latex method, Mindary technique.