Dessie Gashaw, Tadesse Yewondwossen, Demelash Birhanu, Genet Solomon, Malik Tabarak, Dejenie Tadesse Asmamaw
Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Open Access Rheumatol. 2021 Aug 21;13:247-255. doi: 10.2147/OARRR.S325308. eCollection 2021.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder, which is associated with increased pro-inflammatory mediators to induce an elevation in acute-phase response, migration of immune cells and swelling of synovial joints. Evaluation of the level of C-reactive protein and associated risk factors in RA patients was the main aim of this study. Identifying the association between disease activity of RA (hsCRP) and socio-demographic characteristics was another aim of the study.
Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the Rheumatology Clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital. In this study, the level of hsCRP was measured in both case and control groups. Simple descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis, independent sample -test were utilized for statistical analysis. The strength of association between different risk factors and hsCRP was measured using odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
The result of this study showed that the hsCRP level was significantly higher among RA patients as compared to the control groups (P-value = 0.004). There was an association between smoking and high disease activity status (AOR= 20.03, p= 0.40). Low economic status had a statistically significant association with high hsCRP level (AOR = 12.79, p=0.00). In this study, 42 RA patients had >3mg/l hsCRP level with different occupational exposures. On the other hand, 31 RA patients had <3mg/l hsCRP level among different exposures. Although there was no statistically significant association, the association between associated risk factors (oil consumption, physical exercise, educational status) and disease activity was computed in this study.
The inflammatory marker, hsCRP was significantly higher among patients as compared to controls. The higher hsCRP showed a high grade of systemic inflammation in RA patients. C-reactive protein was elevated in rheumatoid factor positive patients and patients with high BMI value. Additionally, the result of our study showed that different socio-economic factors had an association with disease activity of RA.
类风湿关节炎（RA）是一种慢性自身免疫性炎症性疾病，与促炎介质增加有关，可导致急性期反应增强、免疫细胞迁移和滑膜关节肿胀。评估RA患者的C反应蛋白水平及相关危险因素是本研究的主要目的。确定RA疾病活动度（hsCRP）与社会人口学特征之间的关联是本研究的另一目的。
在提库尔·安贝萨专科医院的风湿病诊所进行基于机构的横断面研究。在本研究中，对病例组和对照组均测量了hsCRP水平。采用简单描述性统计、多变量分析、独立样本t检验进行统计分析。使用比值比和95%置信区间来衡量不同危险因素与hsCRP之间的关联强度。P值<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
本研究结果显示，与对照组相比，RA患者的hsCRP水平显著更高（P值=0.004）。吸烟与高疾病活动状态之间存在关联（调整后比值比=20.03，p=0.40）。低经济状况与高hsCRP水平存在统计学显著关联（调整后比值比=12.79，p=0.00）。在本研究中，42例RA患者在不同职业暴露情况下hsCRP水平>3mg/l。另一方面，31例RA患者在不同暴露情况下hsCRP水平<3mg/l。尽管没有统计学显著关联，但本研究计算了相关危险因素（食用油消耗、体育锻炼、教育程度）与疾病活动度之间的关联。
与对照组相比，患者中的炎症标志物hsCRP显著更高。较高的hsCRP表明RA患者存在高度的全身炎症。类风湿因子阳性患者和BMI值高的患者中C反应蛋白升高。此外，我们的研究结果表明，不同的社会经济因素与RA的疾病活动度存在关联。
