Lipid Profile and High Sensitivity C-ReactiveProtein in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory joint disease ofunknown etiology, characterized by polyarthritis, immunological abnormalities, systemic inflammation. Many studies havesuggested that there is increased cardiovascular disease among patients with RA as compared to the general population.RA specifically increases the risk of coronary heart disease, heart failure. A large prospectivestudy showed that the risk of myocardial infarction is increasedup to 3-fold among patients with RA compared to thosewithout RA.Dyslipidemia may be responsible for the increased cardiovascularrisk in RA patients. Several investigators have shown that active RAis associated with an unfavorable lipid profile. In the present study, we have screened 60 RA patients and 40 normal healthy subjects serving as a control group. Lipidprofile and hs-CRP were performed in all cases torule out the levels of these markers during active RA. The objectiveof this study was to determine the serum level of lipid profile, andhs-CRP in RA patients and compare them with healthy controls, andinvestigate whether these could be influenced by the gender of theRA patients and also analyze the correlation between hs-CRP andlipid profile.