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Using Pharmacogenomic Testing to Optimise Pharmaceutical Care of Patients with First Episode Psychosis or Treatment Resistant Depression – An Observational Study

Sarcopenia is defined as a progressive and generalised loss of skeletal muscle and strength either age or disease activity related or both. The aim of this study is to assess sarcopenia in newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients. Patients attending the North Western Rheumatology Unit at Our Lady’s Hospital Manorhamilton will be invited to participate in a study consisting of total body composition analysis, muscle function and quality of life assessment. Patients in the study group will be those who have recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and who are being treated with steroids, biologics or disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. The comparator groups will include patients with a diagnosis of stable rheumatoid arthritis (N=40). Excluded from the comparator groups will be patients receiving regular high dose steroids or >7.5mg per day for greater than three , patients receiving cancer treatment, have a diagnosis of parkinsons disease and patients who are pregnant. Sarcopenia is quantified as Appendicular skeletal mass divided by height squared (ASM/H²) and considered present if the figure is two standard deviations below the mean for a population of young adults as based on the Rosetta study. There will be approximately 80 patients enrolled into the study (40 patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis and 40 patients with established stable rheumatoid arthritis of > 5 years. The study objectives will be to identify if there is a statistically significant difference in the presence of sarcopenia between the three study groups. Statistical significance between variables will be determined using Chi-square test.