Clinical Characteristics in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Correlation between Neopterin, RF, Anti-CCP and Disease Duration with Disease Activity.

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that affects 1-2% of world population approximately. Disease Activity Score (DAS-28) is a clinical parameter assessment of disease progression activity in RA patients. This factor is measured according to swollen and tender joints. Many elements could be caused inflammation and progression in synovial microinviernment including pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α) and other mediators that are produced by adaptive and innate immunity. Neoptrin is one of these elements that is created following catabolism of guanosine triphosphate (GTP). High concentration of neopterin is indicator of a more severe inflammation. Other significant mediators including Anti-CCP and RF are two autoantibodies that interfering in the diagnostic of RA. Material and Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 47 patients and 44 healthy subjects. Then plasma levels of neopterin and Anti-CCP have been evaluated using (IBL, Germany) and (Euro immune company) ELISA kit respectively. In addition, RF positive patients were detected with latex agglutination test, and ESR was obtained from patient's records. Results: In our investigation there was significant correlation between neopterin (P<0.038), Anti-CCP (P<0.001) and RF (P< 0.001) in patients and healthy subjects. Also significant correlation between RF and DAS-28 (P= 0.001) have been found in our study. Furthermore, our study we have calculated the sensitivity and specificity of anti-CCP test (sensitivity 89.1%, specificity 86.95%) and RF (sensitivity 91.3%, specificity 91.1%) for the diagnosis of RA. Conclusion: Our study illustrated that neither neopterin nor anti-CCP have not any significant correlation with DAS-28 while the correlation between RF with DAS-28 was statistically meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]