Serum hepcidin level and rheumatoid arthritis disease activity

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to determine the relationship between the serum hepcidin leveland disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods: This study was conducted on 80 patients with RA (36 cases with anemia of chronic disease[ACD] and 44 patients without ACD). Disease activity was measured by the 28-joint Disease ActivityScore based on the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR). According to the DAS28-ESR score,52 and 28 cases were categorized as inactive to moderately active RA (DAS28-ESR≤5.1) and highlyactive RA (DAS28-ESR>5.1), respectively. In addition, the serum hepcidin level was evaluated in allpatients to determine its correlation with the DAS28-ESR score.Results: There was no significant difference between the RA with ACD and RA without ACD groups interms of the median (interquartile range) hepcidin level (1207 [985.2] vs. 923.8 [677.3] ng/mL; P=0.57).Likewise, no significant difference was observed between the active RA and inactive to moderatelyactive RA groups in this regard (1131.8 [991.3] vs. 1090.9 [631.4] ng/mL; P=0.53).Conclusion: Hepcidin has no association with disease activity in RA. Therefore, it is not necessary tomeasure hepcidin to determine the RA activity.