KINESIOPHOBIA: FREQUENCY, ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND IMPACT ON THE LIFE QUALITY OF PARTICIPANTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To study the frequency of kinesiophobia, the associated factors and its impact on the life quality in black Africa of participants with chronic low back pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, conducted over the period extending from March 2019 through September 2019. The study population included all black African participants with chronic low back pain who were seeking care at the rheumatology and physical medicine departments, during the study period. Pain intensity, duration of symptoms, medical history, endurance of trunk muscles, kinesiophobia index, and quality of life were assessed. We used the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to measure pain intensity, the Shirado-Ito and Sorensen tests to assess trunk muscles endurance. The kinesiophobia index, as well as its impact on life quality were measured using the "Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia" (TSK), and the Dallas Auto-Questionnaire (D.R.A.D) scale for spine Pain respectively. RESULTS: Results: One hundred and twenty patients were involved. Eighty-five patients (70.83%) had kinesiophobia. The factors associated with kinesiophobia included pain intensity (p = 0.0006); duration of symptoms (p = 0.027); hypertension (p = 0.03). Loss of endurance in trunk muscles, weight and gender were not found to be factors associated with kinesiophobia. Based on the DALLAS self-questionnaire, the quality of life was altered. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Kinesiophobia was a recurrent disease. It was associated with the presence of hypertension, the intensity of pain, the duration of the low back pain with an impairment in quality of life.

Case Series of Chronic Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease Patients Infected by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral infection that appeared in December 2019. The risk of infection seems to be increased in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases due to both immune disturbances related to the disease and treatment. In this case report, we describe the clinical features of 5 rheumatic immune disease patients with the concomitant presence of COVID-19. Among these patients, 3 had rheumatoid arthritis and 2 had systemic lupus erythematosus. Patients' age ranged between 38 and 63 years. Only one patient (SLE) had a severe subtype of COVID-19. All the patients were cured of COVID-19 and were subsequently discharged.

COVID-19, chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease and anti-rheumatic treatments.

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.