Arthritis Robustus: review of a case of an “abnormal” rheumatoid

Abstract

IntroductionIncidental discovery or diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis where the patient remains blissfully unaware of his affection is a rare occurrence.Case descriptionWe present the case of a telephone wireman in whom Rheumatoid Arthritis neither affected his activities of daily living nor caused any deformity to develop. It remained asymptomatic till its incidental discovery during his admission for treatment of myocardial infarction.Discussion and EvaluationThis presentation of Rheumatoid Arthritis is termed ‘Arthritis Robustus’ and goes against the very tenets of the picture of Rheumatoid Arthritis we have in our minds. The name given to this entity stems from the fact that these patients are mostly physical labourers i.e. ‘Robust’.ConclusionRheumatoid Arthritis can very rarely be asymptomatic. The rarity of the entity can be inferred from the paucity of published literature.

A Case-Based Review of Arthritis Robustus

“…It must be noted that these were physically active youthful men, and the prevalence of “robustness” was four out of 15 RA patients [ 5 ]. More recently, Prasad et al reported a 58-year-old telephone wireman with an active lifestyle who had clinically evident arthritis without arthralgia, diagnosed as arthritis robustus only when he presented with myocardial infarction [ 6 ]. Thompson and Carr reported 10 patients, out of a randomly selected list of 100 RA patients, who did not complain of pain despite having clinical and biochemical evidence of inflammation [ 7 ].…”

Arthritis Robustus: Still Alive and going Strong!

“…The diagnosis of later-onset rheumatoid arthritis (LORA) has shown to be somewhat difficult because of the overlapping clinical features of different types of RA. In addition, LORA also has similar presentations to diseases such as polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), making laboratory work-up essential when clinical suspicion is high [1][2][3]. Early RA has been defined as patients with symptom/disease duration of less than 2 years, preferentially less than 12 months.…”