The correlation between serum krebs von den lungen-6 level and immune function in rheumatoid arthritis patients with interstitial lung disease / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the correlation between serum krebs von den lungen-6 (KL-6) level and immune function in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), and provide theoretical basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods:Eighty-six RA patients were divided into Non-RA-ILD group and RA-ILD group. The serum KL-6 level and immune function (the number of CD3 +, CD4 +, CD8 + and CD4 +/CD8 + ratio) of all subjects were detected. The correlation between serum KL-6) level and immune function was analyzed. The correlation analysis was performed by Pearson or Spearman rank correlation analysis. Results:There were 54 cases of Non-RA-ILD patients and 32 cases of RA-ILD patients in this study. The clinical data showed that RA-ILD patients were mainly male, and the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and rheumatoid factor (RF) were significantly increased( t=6.382, 7.243 and 7.748, P<0.05). The KL-6 level of RA-ILD patients [(835±72) U/ml] was significantly higher than that of Non-RA-ILD patients [(434±45) U/ml]. And the difference was statistically significant( t=31.670, P<0.05). Meanwhile, the number of CD8 + lymphocyte and CD4 +/CD8 + ratio of RA-ILD patients were significantly increased ( t=3.456 and 4.993, P<0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that the level of KL-6 in serum was negatively correlated with the level of Ts cells CD8 + ( r=-3.563, P=0.031), and positively correlated with the ratio of CD4 +/CD8 + ( r=4.879, P=0.011). Conclusion:The level of serum KL-6 level is closely related to the abnormal immune function of RA-ILD patients. The serum KL-6 level can be used as an important index to evaluate the immune status of RA-ILD patients.