Research Article
Houzou Prénam*, Koffi-T
Abstract
Objectives: To determine the frequency and epidemiological profile of inflammatory arthropathies during a rheumatologic consultation. Patients and methods: It was a series of cases study carried out over four years on files of patients suffering from inflammatory arthropathy and submitted to rheumatologic consultation at Kara Teaching Hospital (Northen-Togo). Results: Among the 2361 rheumatic patients, 152 (6.43%) suffered from inflammatory arthropathy. The 152 patients were made of 57.24% of men and 42.76% of women. The main etiologies observed were: chronic inflammatory rheumatism (CIR) and connective tissue disease (49.34%), infectious arthritis (26.32%), and gout (24.34%). The median age of the 75 patients with CIR at the onset of the disease was 40 years. The main clinical forms of CIR were rheumatoid arthritis (11 cases), spondylarthropathies (20 cases), connective tissue diseases (4 cases), and unclassified CIR (31 cases). The infectious arthritis was caused by a banal germ in 31 cases and by bacillus of Koch in nine other cases. Gout patients (35 men and 2 women) had a median age of 43 years at the onset of the disease. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the high incidence of chronic inflammatory rheumatism in Northen-Togo.