Being overweight increases synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis

Excess weight is linked to a higher degree of synovitis in people with rheumatoid arthritis and can affect their treatment response, according to new research findings.

Synovitis is a common, painful and debilitating symptom for people with rheumatoid arthritis, in which certain joints become inflamed.

To learn more about the possible effects of excess weight on synovial tissue inflammation, a group of researchers in Italy studied 125 people with arthritis of various weights from disease onset to the achievement of stable remission.

They found that overweight and obesity are associated with a higher degree of histologically proven synovitis in people with rheumatoid arthritis from the time of disease onset to the achievement of stable remission. Furthermore, the extra weight influenced the response rate to a treat-to-treat regimen.

“Based on these results, we believe that it’s important to track patients’ BMI in clinical practice, since there is a tight relation between the BMI category of rheumatoid arthritis patients and their chance of a good clinical response to treat-to-target,” said Dr. Alivernini. “Since body weight is a modifiable factor, a standardized, multidisciplinary approach to help the patient achieve weight loss should be advised to increase disease control.”

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