Analysis of serum markers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis complicated by coronary heart disease

Abstract

Objective To observe the levels of serum lipids, inflammation index, autoantibody, heart failure markers and to investigate their clinical significance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) complicated by coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods Set up RA complicated by CHD group, simple RA group, simple CHD group and healthy control group according to gender and age matching, with 61 cases in each group. The index of serum lipid [total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)], serum inflammatory indexes [procalcitonin (PCT), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)], autoantibody [anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACCP)] and heart failure markers (N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide, NT-proBNP) were detected, and were enrolled in statistical analysis. Results There was no significant difference in TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C and PCT among the four groups (P>0.05). The hs-CRP and ACCP levels in RA complicated by CHD group was not significantly different from those in simple RA group (P>0.05), but were significantly different from those in simple CHD group and healthy control group (P<0.05); levels of IL-6 and NT-proBNP in RA complicated by CHD group were significantly different from those in other three groups (all P<0.05). hs-CRP and ACCP had a significant positive correlation in RA complicated by CHD group (r=0.782). Conclusions Levels of hs-CRP, ACCP, NT-proBNP and IL-6 are significantly increased in RA patients complicated by CHD; especially, IL-6 and NT-proBNP have important reference value for predicting and preventing the occurrence of CHD in RA patients. Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis; Coronary heart disease; Blood lipid; Inflammatory factor