Abstract

In this report, a possible association between Dupuytren's disease (DD) and other health problems was investigated. The health problems included in this study are : cardiac ischemia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, malignancy, asthma and COPD. The data of 725 patients with DD were collected from Intego, a database including all morbidity presented to the General Practitioners (GPs) in Flanders. The control group of 2900 age and sex matched non-DD patients was selected from the same database. A possible influence of severity of DD was evaluated by comparing the data of 333 patients operated for DD with the group of Integopatients with DD. This study showed a significant association of every single studied health condition with DD. Comparison of the operated group with the group from Intego with DD, demonstrated only some significant associations, a difference which may be explained by the difference in data collection.