دور البروتيناز المعدني المطرِسِي 3 كواصمة مناعية في التشخيص المبكر لالتهاب المفاصل الروماتويدي

Abstract EN

Early diagnosis of RA is important, not only for prognostic, but also for therapeutic reasons, early therapy may prevent joint destruction.

Several new laboratory tests have been developed for this purpose, among them, matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP-3= stromelysin 1).

our aim was to evaluate the significance of serum MMP-3 levels in the early diagnosis of RA in patients with recent onset (disease symptoms<2 years), when combined with RF-IgM, and the clinical significance of measurements of serum MMP-3 levels in relation to disease activity and it correlation with serum hsCRP levels.

Methods: Serum MMP-3, RF-IgM and hsCRP levels were measured in 129 patients (71 early RA patients, 58 established RA patients), and 32 healthy controls (female 17, male 15), by ELISA.

Results: The MMP-3 levels in healthy male (33.2±14.5 ng/ml) were significantly higher than those in female 17.1±5.9 ng/ml (p<0.001).

MMP-3 levels in RA patients (68.2±58.5 ng/ml) were significantly higher than those in healthy controls (24.6±13.34 ng/ml) (P<0.0001).

Sensitivity and specificity of MMP-3 in early RA patients (male and female) were 66.7% and 80%, 66% and 88%, respectively.

Sensitivity and specificity of RF-IgM in early RA patients were 47.9% and 93.5%, respectively.

There was a significant correlation between MMP-3 and hsCRP levels in serum (r= 0.33, p<0.05).

The specificity of RF-IgM became up to 93.5% when combined with MMP-3.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that MMP-3 measurement is useful for the early diagnosis and assessment disease activity of RA, and that this combination between MMP-3 and RF-IgM is useful in diagnosis of RA efficiently.