Muscle loss following a single high-dose intramuscular injection of corticosteroids to treat disease flare in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: Adverse changes in body composition, specifically decreased muscle mass (MM) and increased fat mass, characterize rheumatoid arthritis (RA). These changes, termed rheumatoid cachexia (RC), are important contributors to the disability and elevated co-morbidity risk of RA. Recently, we observed substantial muscle loss (~2 kg) in a patient with RA following a single intramuscular (IM) corticosteroid (CS) injection to treat a disease flare.

Tight control of disease activity fails to improve body composition or physical function in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Objective: RA typically features rheumatoid cachexia [loss of muscle mass (MM) and excessive total fat mass (TFM), especially trunk FM], which contributes to physical disability. Since rheumatoid cachexia is driven by inflammation, it would be anticipated that the success of tight control of disease activity, such as treat-to-target (T2T), in attenuating inflammation would benefit body composition and physical function. This aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the impact of T2T on body composition and objectively assessed function in RA patients.

Can Creatine Supplementation Improve Body Composition and Objective Physical Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Rheumatoid cachexia (muscle wasting) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients contributes to substantial reductions in strength and impaired physical function. The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to investigate the effectiveness of oral creatine (Cr) supplementation in increasing lean mass and improving strength and physical function in RA patients.

Methods: In a double-blind design, 40 RA patients were randomized to either 12 weeks' supplementation of Cr or placebo.