The aim of this study is to review over a period of 5 years the clinical spectrum of rheumatic diseases seen in a tertiary hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A retrospective study of case records was conducted from March 1, 2006 to March 30, 2011 in the Rheumatology service, Department of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital Yalgado Ouedraogo. Of the 4,084 patients seen, 2,381 were women (58.30%) and 1,703 were men (41.70%). The mean age at disease onset was 42.12 years, ranging from 3 to 92 years. Among the rheumatologic conditions, mechanical and degenerative disorders were the most common, found in 3,053 cases (74.76%). Among these cases, spinal pathology predominated, especially low back pain (19.93 %). The frequency of osteoarthritis was 19.70 % (804 cases) with a predominance of knee osteoarthritis (657 cases). Infectious pathology was dominated by osteoarticular tuberculosis (48 cases), particularly Pott's disease (43.68% of infectious diseases). Among the cases of inflammatory arthritides, rheumatoid arthritis was the leading cause (116 cases or 2.84%). It was followed by spondyloarthropathies in which arthritis related to HIV predominated (21 out of 81 cases). Metabolic diseases were mainly represented by the gout (162 cases or 3.96%) with male predominance. Comorbidities included high blood pressure (46.57%), diabetes mellitus (13.78%), hemoglobinopathies (9.66%), epigastric pain (7.25%), and peptic ulcer confirmed by endoscopy (6.75%). Rheumatology in Burkina Faso is booming. The profile of rheumatologic diseases in Burkina Faso, after 5 years of practice, confirms the diversity and importance of these conditions dominated by a degenerative pathology of the spine and limbs, including infectious diseases such as Pott's disease and the inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

No abstract

The objective of this work was to study the clinical and serological profiles of rheumatoid arthritis in Burkina Faso (West Africa). It is a cross-sectional study conducted from March 2006 to February 2009 in the Internal Medicine Department of the University Hospital Yalgado Ouedraogo. All patients seen in the rheumatologic consultation unit during this period, with rheumatoid arthritis fulfilling the ACR criteria, were routinely selected. The determination of anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) was carried out with a computerized method (Elia CCP, Phadia AB, Uppsala, Sweden). Values higher than 10 IU/l were considered positive. Forty-eight cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were recruited throughout the study period among 2,194 (2.2 %) patients. Forty-two files were subjected to the study. There were 34 women and 8 men. The average age was 41.70 ± 13 years with extremes of 22 and 71 years. The average duration of the disease was 86.17 ± 82.01 months with extremes of 8 and 360 months. Rheumatoid factors (RF) were positive in 21 out of 30 patients (70.0%). The determination of ACPA carried out in all the patients was positive in 34 (81%) patients; their average value was 217 IU/l with extremes of 38 and 1,170. RF and ACPA were associated to bones erosions (p = 0.0001). Twenty-two patients were placed on methotrexate, eight on hydroxychloroquine, and three on salazopyrine. Nine were given only NSAIDs or prednisolone. No patients had had a biotherapy agent. The frequency of RA was low in our study compared to other African studies published so far. The particularity of RA cases reported in African series, including ours, is the rarity of extra-articular manifestations of the disease. The severity of the disease at presentation in the rheumatology clinic may be due to their late consultation among other causes.

Since December 2019, the pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) raises a real public health problem. COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan (Hubei province) in China. Drugs that have been used in rheumatology for decades seem to be effective in this infection and are for the most part being studied. The rational use of these anti-rheumatic drugs is based on the cytokinic storm (hyperproduction of IL1, IL6, TNF α) in the body by COVID-19 in its severe form. In this review, the authors make the difference between the infectious and auto-inflammatory part of COVID-19; the disease does not seem to be a risk factor for admission to the intensive care unit for patients suffering from inflammatory rheumatism; however, the poverty of studies on this subject should be noted. The authors also review anti-rheumatic drugs while studying COVID-19 treatment.