DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i11.009

Pages: 4202-4205

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects mainly the small joints of the hands and feet. It is one of the most common inflammatory joint diseases that compromise quality of life, cause disability and even premature mortality. RA is widely prevalent throughout the world, mainly affecting older women. Clinical manifestations consist of pain, swelling and tenderness of the small joints of the hands. Since RA is a systemic disease, patients may have accompanying constitutional symptoms such as fever, weight loss and fatigue. At initial patient evaluation complete blood count including ESR, liver function tests, kidney function tests, and CRP should be done. CRP (C-reactive protein) is an important biomarker of inflammation in RA which can help to monitor disease progression. Rheumatoid factor (RF) is detectable during the course of disease in approximately 75% to 85% of patients with RA. High titres of RF are associated with aggressive, destructive joint disease and extra-articular complications such as interstitial lung disease and rheumatoid vasculitis. The present study was undertaken to retrospectively analyse the prevalence of RF and association with CRP in patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital in South India. Of the 631 sera specimens submitted for RF test, 34 were positive i.e. there was 5.4% seroprevalence of RF in the study population. Majority of the cases i.e. 73% were females; 44% of RF positive patients were in the age group of 21-40 years, followed by 35% in the 41-60 years age group. Among the RF seropositive patients, elevated CRP levels were found in 41% of the cases. Thus the role of CRP as an acute inflammatory marker and important diagnostic indicator in RA is confirmed by the results of our study.