Department of Health Sciences, University of Catanzaro "Magna Graecia", Catanzaro, Italy.
Rheumatology Department of Lucania, "San Carlo" Hospital of Potenza and "Madonna delle Grazie" Hospital of Matera, Potenza, Italy.
Eur J Clin Invest. 2017 Oct;47(10):728-735. doi: 10.1111/eci.12798. Epub 2017 Sep 2.
Recent evidence suggested a potential role of complement fraction C3 as a biomarker of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the general population. Aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of C3 for prediction of NAFLD in RA patients.
For the present study, consecutive RA patients were recruited. NAFLD was diagnosed according to predefined ultrasonographic (US) criteria. For comparison, the hepatic steatosis index (HSI) was calculated.
Of 164 consecutive RA patients, 41 (25%) were diagnosed with NAFLD. The NAFLD group had a significant lower proportion of females (P = 0·04), higher BMI (P < 0·0001), C-reactive protein (P = 0·04), complement C3 (P = 0·001) and HSI (P = 0·003). In a logistic regression model, only male sex (OR 2·65, 95% CI: 1·08-6·50, P = 0·03), increasing BMI (OR 1·22, 95% CI: 1·02-1·46, P = 0·03) and complement C3 (OR 5·05, 95% CI: 1·06-23·93, P = 0·04) were associated with higher likelihood of being diagnosed with NAFLD. Finally, we built ROC curves for BMI, complement C3 and their combination for prediction of having NAFLD. The best cut-off for BMI was 28·5 kg/m and yielded a sensitivity of 66% and a specificity of 71%; the best cut-off for complement C3 was 1·23 g/L and yielded a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 64% for classification of NAFLD cases.
Our results provide preliminary evidence for a potential role of complement C3 as a surrogate biomarker of NAFLD in RA patients.
最近的证据表明，补体 C3 片段可能在普通人群中作为非酒精性脂肪性肝病 (NAFLD) 的生物标志物。本研究旨在评估 C3 对 RA 患者 NAFLD 的预测性能。
本研究纳入了连续的 RA 患者。根据预先定义的超声 (US) 标准诊断为 NAFLD。为了比较，还计算了肝脂肪变性指数 (HSI)。
在 164 例连续的 RA 患者中，有 41 例 (25%) 被诊断为 NAFLD。NAFLD 组女性比例显著较低 (P = 0·04)，BMI 较高 (P < 0·0001)、C 反应蛋白 (P = 0·04)、补体 C3 (P = 0·001) 和 HSI (P = 0·003)。在逻辑回归模型中，只有男性性别 (OR 2·65，95%CI：1·08-6·50，P = 0·03)、BMI 增加 (OR 1·22，95%CI：1·02-1·46，P = 0·03) 和补体 C3 (OR 5·05，95%CI：1·06-23·93，P = 0·04) 与更高的 NAFLD 诊断可能性相关。最后，我们为 BMI、补体 C3 及其组合构建了用于预测 NAFLD 的 ROC 曲线。BMI 的最佳截断值为 28.5 kg/m2，其灵敏度为 66%，特异性为 71%；补体 C3 的最佳截断值为 1.23 g/L，其灵敏度为 76%，特异性为 64%，可用于分类 NAFLD 病例。
我们的结果初步证明了补体 C3 作为 RA 患者 NAFLD 的替代生物标志物的潜在作用。
