Connective tissue diseases in Africa

Purpose, - There have been few studies of connective tissue diseases in Afr ica. Methods. - A retrospective study was conducted in order to describe the var ious connective tissue diseases and their semiological profile in patients attending the dermatology and rheumatology units at Lome hospital. Results. - Clinical examinations showed that eighty-four (0.2%) out of the 34,169 patients were suffering from connective tissue diseases. Diseases th at were enccountered were the following: scleroderma (18 cases), systemic l upus erythematosus (four cases), discoid lupus erythematosus (15 cases), rh eumatoid arthritis (29 cases), polymyositis and dermatomyositis (16 cases), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (one case), giant cell arteritis (one case). Raynaud's syndrome was present in six out of the 18 patients suffering fro m scleroderma. Nephrotic syndrom was observed in a patient suffering from s ystemic lupus erythematosus. A septicemia caused this patient's death. Two patients suffering from polymyositis had cancer. No etiology was found in t he 14 other patients. Hip involvement was present in two patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis had no syste mic involvement (nodulitis, vasculitis). Conclusion. - Our results are in agreement with those of previous studies o n connective tissue diseases in Africa. However, further studies are requir ed to better understand the epidemiological and semiological profiles of co nnective tissue diseases in Africa. (C) 1999 Elsevier, Paris.