Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory arthritis which changes the biomechanical properties of bones and leads to the alterations in bone components through the increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines or by hormone mediated mechanisms (1-3). In addition to traditional risk factors of osteoporosis, physical disability, inadequate treatment, and disease activity are also responsible factors of bone loss and osteoporosis in RA (4-6). Furtheremore, disease duration, seropositivity for anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF) have been shown to be associated with bone loss in RA (7, 8).