Association between microalbuminuria and metabolic syndrome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

الملخص EN

Context Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune, symmetrical polyarticular disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the synovial joints.

Microalbuminuria (MA) occurs as leakage of small amounts of albumin into the urine.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) describes the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as dyslipidemia, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.

Aim The aim of this study was to detect the prevalence of MA in patients with RA and study its correlation with disease activity and severity.

Our aim extends to identify the association of MA with MetS in RA.

Patients and methods This study was carried out on 30 adult RA patients, 30%of them were men and 70% were women (mean±SD: 42.27±10.99 years).

Their mean disease duration was 12.8±7.06 years.

A total of 20 apparently healthy adults, age-matched and sexmatched served as a control group.

All the patients were subjected to full history taking, full clinical examination, laboratory investigations, and assessment of disease activity using the disease activity score for 28 joints score.

Urinary microalbumin level wasmeasured inall participants in earlymorningsamplesby the immunoturbidometry method.

MetS was assessed in all participants according to Grundy’s criteria.

Results The frequency of MetS was highly statistically significant in patients with RA compared with the control group.

The RA patients’ group had highly significantly elevated mean values of urinary microalbumin and urinary albumin to creatinine ratio compared with the control group.

Conclusion MA and MetS are frequent in RA, particularly in those with long-standing disease.

Early detection of albuminuria allows early intervention with the goal of reducing inflammation development in RA, cardiovascular risk.

MetS is frequent in RA patients with MA.