The Prevalence of Periarthritis in Patients Referred to Rheumatology center of Shariati Hospital (Tehran, 1996-2002)

Soft tissue involvements are the most common types of rheumatic diseases. The prevalence of periarthritis in a study in the USA was 20-30% of all rheumatic diseases. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence, type, topography and treatment in these disorders. This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 1600 files of patients that were visited in rheumatology center of Shariati Hospital between 1996-2002. The samples were selected randomly and systematically and the data were extracted. The prevalence of periarthritis was estimated 16.25% (260 cases). Most of the cases with periarthritis were found in the age group of 40-50 years (26.6%) and the mean of age was 46.48±13.86. About 78.5% of patients were female and 21.5% were male. The most common forms of periarthritis were tendonitis and bursitis (64.6%) and the second rate was neurovascular (23.6%). The most frequent disease was carpal tunnel syndrome 21.9% and shoulder capsulitis (13.5%). Right upper limb and wrist (26.2%) were the most frequent sites of involvement and the rate of bilateral carpal tunnel was 42%. The rheumatic disease, as background, were found in 17.3% of patients. Bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome was the most frequent type of bilateral periarthritis which was statisticaly significant (p<0.001). As the results showed periarthritis diseases are very common, specially carpal tunnel syndrome and shoulder capsulitis. The future studies need to evaluate the response to treatment, job and trauma must be considered because of their importance in etiology. This study can be considered as a basis study for future reserches.