Correlation of Pulmonary Involvement with Serum Anti-CCP Antibodies and Disease Activity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Aim: Lung involvement substantially increases the morbidity and mortality rates in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), thus, the early detection of lung involvement is essential for proper management. Several recent reports revealed that anti-CCP is an important parameter in the early diagnosis of RA and is closely related with the extraarticular manifestations of the disease. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between serum anti-CCP antibodies and disease activity score-28 (DAS28), using the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) in patients with RA, whose pulmonary involvement was detected by computed tomography (CT). Methods: According to the high-resolution CT findings, the patients were divided into two groups - with pulmonary involvement (24 patients), and without a pulmonary disease (25 patients). Results: Statistically significant association was not found between pulmonary involvement and anti-CCP antibodies. There was no significant correlation between pulmonary involvement and disease activity evaluated by the HAQ. Conclusion: The disease activity determined by the DAS28 was significantly negatively correlated with pulmonary involvement (The Medical Bulletin of Haseki 2010; 48: 142-5)

Keywords

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Pulmonary Involvement
• Anti-CCP
• Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire
• DAS28