Detection and clinical significance of blood D-Dimer in rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect D-Dimer in the blood of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to investigate its clinical significance in RA. Methods Blood samples were obtained from 58 patients with RA,18 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 15 patients with ankylosing spondylitis, 11 patients with osteoarthritis, and 20 patients with other connective tissue diseases. The presence of thrombotic diseases was excluded in all patients. The presence of D-Dimer in the blood was examined by immunoturbidimetry. The following clinical and laboratory data were collected: disease activity index DAS28, rheumatoid factor (RF),erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP). Mann-Whitney U test, t-test ,Spearman correlation were used for statistical analysis. Results ① The prevalence of high level D-Dimer in RA patients was higher than that of the control group (82.6％ vs 21.9％, P＜0.01). The titer of D-Dimer in RA was significantly higher than that of the control group [(1.76±1.57) vs (0.32±0.25) mg/L, P＜0.01]. ②DAS28 was higher in RA patients with positive D-Dimer than those with negative D-Dimer (5.4±1.0 vs 4.4±0.8,P＜0.01). The values of ESR, CRP and RF in RA patients with positive D-Dimer were significantly higher than those in patients with negative D-Dimer (P＜0.05). ③ There was positive correlation between D-Dimer and DAS28 (r=0.406, P＜0.05), ESR (r=0.355, P＜0.01), and RF (r=0.319, P＜0.05). Conclusion The level of D-Dimer in the blood of RA patients is significantly higher than other rheumatic diseases, and is positively correlated with disease activities. The results indicated that the activation of coagulation-fibrinolytic systems may play a role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.