Serum adrenomedullin level in rheumatoid arthritis compared with systemic lupus erythematosus

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to measure the level of serum adrenomedullin [AM] in rheumatoid arthritis [RA] and systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE] to find out its role in their pathogenesis and its correlation with clinical and laboratory parameters of disease activity. Twenty-five RA patients [group I], 15 SLE patients [group II] and 10 healthy controls were included in this study. They were subjected to full history taking, thorough clinical examination and CBC, ESR, RF, ANA, Ant ds DNA investigations and measurement of serum adrenomedullin level with ELISA. An assessment of disease activity was done using Duke score for RA patients and SLE-DAI score for SLE. From the results obtained, it was concluded that serum level of AM was elevated in both RA and SLE [more in RA than SLE] patients and it was correlated with the disease activity parameter RA [only with ESR in SLE]. These findings emphasized that AM is involved in the pathogenesis of RA and SLE