ABSTRACT
Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is common worldwide, including the gulf region. Early diagnosis of IBD can improve patients' outcomes. However, early diagnosis is dependent on patients' awareness of the disease to seek medical advice. This study aimed to survey the awareness of IBD in the general population of the western region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: A questionnaire about Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) was distributed to the general public. A score of 1 was given for the right response and 0 for an incorrect response, giving a maximum of 3 and a minimum of 0 for the three questions in the questionnaire. Results: 1,304 participants responded. Twenty nine percentage had not heard or read about CD, while 19% had not heard or read about UC. The mean awareness level score was 1.72 ± 1.19. Females showed a significantly higher score compared to males (p < 0.001). The age-group 31 to 40 had the highest score (p = 0.002). Moreover, responders who had a PhD. showed significantly higher scores than those with other educational degrees (p < 0.001). Responders who dealt with CD or UC patients showed significantly higher scores than their peers (p < 0.001) for both. Conclusion: The general population in Saudi Arabia has an unacceptable level of awareness of IBD. Females, young adults (age-group: 31-40 years), educated individuals (with a PhD), and those who had dealt with IBD patients previously had better awareness compared to the rest of the population. National acts are essential to improve public awareness toward the disease.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Reactivation of viral hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) has been reported in various case reports of patients with arthritis on biological therapy. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of arthritis patients with HBV or HCV treated with biological therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a retrospective case series including all patients above 13 years of age with arthritis patients from four centers in Saudi Arabia with concurrent chronic viral hepatitis infection (HBV or HCV) who received biological agents in the rheumatology clinics during their course of their disease from duration of the disease onset until last outpatient visit up to November 2015. Demographic information, full details about the hepatitis status of each patient, rheumatic disease diagnosis and different therapies used were reviewed. RESULTS: We identified 10 cases each with HBV and HCV on biological therapy. The mean age in the HBV group was 51 (34-85) years and 80% were females. Eight patients had rheumatoid arthritis (RA), one patient had RA/systemic lupus erythematosus, and one had human immunodeficiency virus related-arthritis. Seven were chronic inactive HBsAg carriers and three had chronic active HBV. Nine HBV patients received prophylactic antiviral therapy. Two cases with chronic HBV had reactivation with no elevation of the transaminases.The mean age in the HCV group was 54 (23-79) years and all were female RA patients. Three had detectable hepatitis C virus-ribonuecleic acid (HCV-RNA) before the start of biological therapy. Nine HCV patients received antiviral treatment and seven had a sustained virologic response (SVR) before start of biological treatment. Three patients had detectable HCV-RNA during the course of biological therapy. One of the three was a non-responder and two were relapsers. One of the patients with HCV relapse was started on sofosbuvir plus ribavirin and achieved SVR on follow-up. CONCLUSION: We report the successful use of biological therapy in arthritis patients with hepatitis B infection with antiviral therapy with no detoriation of their viral status. Due to the lack of sufficient prospective studies demonstrating the rate of HCV flare on biological therapy, caution should be exercised and careful monitoring with liver enzymes and viral load is mandated in vulnerable HCV RNA patients. Treatment should be individualized by the rheumatologist in collaboration with the hepatologist to minimize complications.