Effect of long-term corticosteroid therapy on bone density in

To study the effect of long-term corticosteroid therapy on bone mass density (measured at the lumbar spine and femoral neck using DXA) in Egyptian patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Methods :Sixty rheumatoid arthritis patients were selected and included in this study. Patients were divided into two divisions each division has three groups .The first division was treated with long-term (> 1year), low-dose (5-15 mg /d) corticosteroids with or without other lines of treatment. The second division was treated with other lines of treatment than corticosteroids.The first division (groups 1 –3) represents the corticosteroid-using rheumatoid arthritis patients. The second division (groups 4 – 6) represents the non-corticosteroid-using rheumatoid arthritis patients.