Key clinical point: Rheumatoid meningitis should be considered in adult patients with or without a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This would help in timely diagnosis and treatment, thus improving its outcomes.
Major finding: Common clinical manifestations of rheumatoid meningitis were transient focal neurologic signs (64.28%), systemic symptoms (51.78%), episodic headaches (50.00%), and neuropsychiatric changes (47.32%). Brain imaging indicated frontal (82.69%) and parietal (77.88%) lobes as the most common lesion location. Laboratory findings included high levels of rheumatoid factor (89.71%), anticyclic citrulline peptide (89.47%), C-reactive protein (82.54%), and erythrocyte deposition rate (81.81%).
Study details: Findings are from a meta-analysis of 103 studies involving 130 cases of rheumatoid meningitis. RA was diagnosed previously in 83% of cases, whereas the remaining 17% of patients were diagnosed with RA during or after the first diagnosis of rheumatoid meningitis.
Disclosures: No outside funding was provided for this study. The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.
Source: Villa E et al. Eur J Neurol. 2021 May 9. doi: 10.1111/ene.14904 .