Rheumatic disease in the elderly: rheumatoid arthritis.

This review summarizes the different aspects of rheumatoid arthritis and the spectrum of diseases that can present as rheumatoid arthritis-like arthritis in the elderly population. With the aging of Western population, different forms of inflammatory arthritis' prevalence and incidence are increasing in the elderly persons. Difficulties in establishing the diagnosis and introducing new treatment modalities in this patient group poses a great challenge for the clinicians. The management of inflammatory arthritis in the elderly requires special consideration in regard to the comorbidities and increased frequency of adverse events. There is definitely a substantial need for improving different aspects of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that will reduce the impact of inflammatory arthritis in the growing elderly population.