Comparison Between RF, CRP And CCP in Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis in an Iraqi Population

Abstract

A total of 60 patients with RA and 36 apparently healthy control individuals without other autoimmune disease non-diabetic, non-pregnant were included in this study. Patient and control groups were matched in age and gender (P value is 0.37). C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factors (RF) were detected in all participants. Antibodies directed to cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACPA), in the human serum samples were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results of this study showed that the RA disease is more frequent in female (51/60, 85%) than male (9/60, 15%). The mean age was 44.6 ± 12.5 years and female to male ratio was 5.6:1. Patients with RA had recorded a higher CRP positivity (66.7) compared with control group (36.1) with highly significant difference. In conclusions, most RA patients were females, there were many laboratories diagnostic tests to the diagnosis of RA like CRP, RF and ACCP but the ACCP antibodies test was more specific for predicting and/or diagnosing RA.