PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic joint inflammatory disease that involves various pro-inflammatory mediators and cytokines. This study explores the correlation among various biochemical and immunological parameters for the male patients with RA and performs a predictive equation that would correlate these parameters together. The study involved 44 male patients suffering from RA with the same number of healthy controls. Consent was achieved for all patients and controls, together with a general examination including complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and RF. Moreover, lipid profile, kidney function tests, specific enzymes and the following parameters have been detected, which were hypothesised to negatively impact RA disease such as TGF-β1, vitamin E, VE-cadherin, interleukin 33 and TIMP-1. Various enzymatic-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), spectroscopic, serological, and haematological methods were used to quantify these parameters. Our results have revealed a significant positive correlation between ESR, RF, VE-cadherin and vitamin E, specifically type α-tocopherol that are associated with the non-biochemical parameters such as BMI, waist length, hip length, thorax and age. The important parameters revealed correlated with RA were used to generate two predictive equations to help the physicians confirm whether a patient is diagnosed with RA directly. In addition, the study revealed some parameters that would have a positive effect on RA patients, such as TGF-β1, vitamin E and VE-cadherin, which have shown a decrease in their values compared to the controls. In contrast, other parameters showed an increase in RA patients, and therefore they can be useful biomarkers for RA disease.

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