Patients with chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) diseases. The expected higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in rheumatic diseases (such as a possible cause of increased CV risk) was confirmed in RA.
The aim of this study was to detect the prevalence of microalbuminuria (MA) in patients with RA and to study its correlation with disease activity and severity. Our aim extended to identify the association of MA with the MetS which describes risk factors linked to CV disease in RA.
This study was carried out on 30 adult RA patients, 9 male patients (30%) and 21 female patients (70%) with a mean age of 42.27 ±10.99 years diagnosed according to to the 2010 ACR / EULAR classification criteria for RA . Their disease durations ranged from 1 to 22 years with a mean of 12.8±7.06 years.
Twenty apparently healthy adults of matched age and sex with a mean age of 39.7 ±13 years, 4 males (20%) and 16 females (80%) served as a control group.
All patients were subjected to full history taking, full clinical examination, laboratory assessment and assessment of disease activity according to DAS 28 Score. The MetS was assessed in all subjects according to Grundy’s criteria. Urinary microalbumin level was measured by the immunoturbidometry method.
There was no statistically significant difference between both RA patients’ group and the control group as regard to age and sex (p>0.05).
There were no statistically significant differences between both RA patients’ group and the control group regarding: the mean values of weight (p =0.77), height (p =0.92) and BMI (p =0.87).
Fifteen of the RA patients’ group (50%) had MA (urinary microalbumin > 15 mg/L and an albumin creatinine ratio (A/CR) ˃ 30. )
Twenty-five (83.3%) of the RA patients’ group were RF positive with a mean± SD (81.1±68.8 IU/L cut-off point > than 8 IU/L).
The RA patients’ group had highly significantly elevated mean values of CRP (p