CHECKUP RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, HIGH BIRTH WEIGHT LINKED.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

A Swedish study finds a relationship between high birth weight and development of rheumatoid arthritis later in life.

It's a puzzlement, as are the other relationships found in the study, says Dr. Lennart Jacobsson.

This is not the wear-and-tear arthritis, formally called osteoarthritis, that many people experience as they grow older. Instead, it is an autoimmune disorder, in which the body's immune system attacks joints and surrounding tissue for unknown reasons.

``We know that genetics can explain about 50 percent of cases,'' says Jacobsson, an associate professor in the Malmo University Hospital department of rheumatology. ``We have not yet identified a major environmental factor that is involved.''

He and his colleagues tried to identify such a factor by digging up the birth records of 77 people with rheumatoid arthritis who were born in the Malmo area between 1940 and 1960 and comparing them with the records of 308 area residents who don't have arthritis.

Babies weighing more than 4,000 grams - about 9 pounds - were more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those of average weight.

FOCUS ON LATINOS: Latinos over the age of 40 have higher rates of vision loss compared to other ethnic or racial groups, according to the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

The five-year study tracked causes of blindness and access to eye care among 6,200 Latinos. Cataracts were the leading cause of vision loss, followed by diabetic complications. Researchers defined vision impairment as 20/40 vision or worse in the stronger eye, even when wearing glasses.