Clinical meaning and implications of serum hemoglobin levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid Factor Titer as an Indicator of the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis Activity: Dose-Effect Analysis with the Restricted Cubic Spline Model

Background

Rheumatoid factor (RF) titer is known to be correlated to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) activity, but the ideal cut-off titer of RF remains unclear. Here, the relationship between RF titer and RA activity was investigated in order to determine the ideal RF value indicative of the risk of RA activity.

Methods

Clinical data from 2044 eligible patients were collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from February 2022 to October 2023. A restricted cubic spline (RCS) model was used to evaluate the relationship between RF titer and RA activity.

Results

Data from a total of 2044 patients with RA were collected and analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that higher RF levels were significant predictors of the risk of RA activity calculated according to the disease activity score 28 (DAS28)-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (OR = 2.020, 95% CI = 1.457-2.801, P < 0.001) and DAS28-C reactive protein (CRP) (OR = 1.526, 95% CI = 1.092-2.131, P = 0.013), after the results were adjusted for potential covariates. The relationship between log2RF and the risk of RA activity was non‑linear in the RCS model (P < 0.05). The cutoff value of RF titers for determining the risk of RA activity was 65.80 IU/mL. When RF exceeded the cutoff value, the risk of RA activity based on DAS28-ESR increased by 99.2% and the risk of RA activity based on DAS28-CRP increased by 62.8% (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

The risk of RA activity increased non-linearly with the continuous change in RF titer.

Red Blood Cell-Related Parameters in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Clinical Value and Immunological Significance

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. Moreover, the disease activity, co-morbidities, and prognosis of RA are closely associated with changes in red blood cell (RBC)-related parameters. The role of these parameters in RA has therefore been extensively studied. Accordingly, this article summarizes and analyzes the close relationship of RBC-related parameters such as RBC count, hemoglobin, and RBC distribution width with disease activity, co-morbidities, and prognosis in RA by reviewing the available literature. In addition, given the immunomodulatory functions of RBCs, their surface proteins, contents, and microparticles are involved in the immunomodulatory process during RA. Overall, this review aims to assess the important clinical value and immunological significance of RBCs and their related parameters in the monitoring and management of RA, thus providing a reference for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of RA and the direction for the research on RBC-related immunity.

Iron metabolism and arthritis: Exploring connections and therapeutic avenues

ABSTRACT

Iron is indispensable for the viablility of nearly all living organisms, and it is imperative for cells, tissues, and organisms to acquire this essential metal sufficiently and maintain its metabolic stability for survival. Disruption of iron homeostasis can lead to the development of various diseases. There is a robust connection between iron metabolism and infection, immunity, inflammation, and aging, suggesting that disorders in iron metabolism may contribute to the pathogenesis of arthritis. Numerous studies have focused on the significant role of iron metabolism in the development of arthritis and its potential for targeted drug therapy. Targeting iron metabolism offers a promising approach for individualized treatment of arthritis. Therefore, this review aimed to investigate the mechanisms by which the body maintains iron metabolism and the impacts of iron and iron metabolism disorders on arthritis. Furthermore, this review aimed to identify potential therapeutic targets and active substances related to iron metabolism, which could provide promising research directions in this field.

Association Between Anemia Status and the Risk of Different Types of Heart Failure: A RCSCD-TCM Study in China

We investigated the association between anemia status and the risk of heart failure (HF) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) based on a multi-center, large-sample and retrospective cross-sectional study including 89,207 patients. Heart failure was categorized as HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and HF with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF). In multi-adjusted models, compared with patients without anemia, mild anemia (odds ratio [OR] 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.53-1.91; P < .001), moderate anemia (OR 3.68; 95% CI, 3.25-4.17; P < .001), and severe anemia (OR 8.02; 95% CI, 6.50-9.88; P < .001) were associated with the risk of HF among CHD patients. Men aged <65 years were more likely to develop HF. In subgroup analyses, the multi-adjusted ORs and 95% CI of HFpEF, HFrEF, and HFmrEF related to anemia were 3.24 (95% CI 1.43-7.33), 2.22 (95% CI 1.28-3.84), and 2.55 (95% CI 2.24-2.89), respectively. These findings suggest that anemia might be associated with increased risk of different types of HF, especially HFpEF.

Chronic stress predisposes to the aggravation of inflammation in autoimmune diseases with focus on rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis

The global incidence of autoimmune diseases is on the rise, and many healthcare professionals believe that chronic stress plays a prominent role in both the aggravation and remission of these conditions. It is believed that prolonged exposure to stress is associated with neuroimmune axis malfunction, which eventually dysregulates multiple immunological factors as well as deregulates autoimmune responses that play a central role in various autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Herein, we performed validation of an 8-week long rat model of chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) which consisted of exposing groups of rats to random stressors daily for 8 weeks. Additionally, we developed a novel rat model combining 8-week long random stressor-induced CUS with CIA-triggered arthritis and IMQ-triggered psoriasis and have successfully used both these models to assess the role of chronic stress in the aggravation of arthritis and psoriasis, respectively. Notably, the 8-week CUS protocol extensively aggravated and prolonged both arthritis and psoriasis condition in the rat model by upregulating the release of different pro-inflammatory cytokines, dysregulation of immune cell responses and oxidative stress system, which were all related to severe inflammation. Further, CUS aggravated macroscopic features and the increase in destruction of joint tissue and epidermal thickness induced by CIA and IMQ, respectively, in rats. In conclusion, this study suggests that exposure to an 8-week long CUS paradigm aggravates the distinctive characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis in rats via amplifying the inflammatory circuits and immune cell responses linked to these autoimmune diseases.

Serum Raman spectroscopy can be used to screen patients with early rheumatoid arthritis

In this study, Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze the serum of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to explore the screening value of Raman spectroscopy in patients with early RA. A total of 216 patients were included in the study. Fasting venous blood was collected for routine biochemical detection, and the remaining samples were tested by serum Raman spectroscopy. Support vector machine was used for model building and training. The area under the curve (AUC) values of the model were as follows: (1) healthy group versus early RA group: 0.860, (2) healthy group versus non-early RA group: 0.903, and (3) early RA group versus non-early RA group: 0.918. This study shows that serum Raman spectroscopy has a good ability to screen RA and can be staged according to the course of the disease, which can provide new ideas and technical support for the diagnosis or screening of early RA.

Association of hemoglobin levels with radiographic progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: an analysis from the BRASS registry

BACKGROUND

To evaluate baseline hemoglobin (Hb) and radiographic progression over time in patients enrolled in the Brigham and Women's Rheumatoid Arthritis Sequential Study (BRASS) registry.

METHODS

The BRASS is a prospective observational registry of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. BRASS Hb data and total sharp score data were matched with the main BRASS patients. Hb at baseline was categorized per the World Health Organization guidelines. Mean Hb, mean total sharp score, and mean changes over time from baseline to month 120 were summarized (overall, by low/normal Hb, and by current medication at baseline). All analyses were descriptive.

RESULTS

Out of the total (N = 1114) rheumatoid arthritis patients included in the analysis, patients with low Hb at baseline (n = 224 [20%]) had longer disease duration and higher disease activity and reported more pain compared with patients with normal Hb at baseline (n = 890 [80%]). Patients with low Hb at baseline continued to have lower Hb than patients with normal Hb throughout 10 years; although, on average, patients in the low Hb subgroup exhibited a steady increase in Hb levels. A larger increase in total sharp score over time was observed for patients with low Hb than for patients with normal Hb. No meaningful differences potentially attributable to medication at baseline were detected.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with low Hb levels at baseline tended to have increased radiographic progression as measured by total sharp score compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis having normal Hb levels. Patients with low Hb experienced sustained improvements in Hb levels over time, regardless of the class of medication used.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01793103.

Association Between Blood PLT and RBC Related Indices and Disease Activity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background

Platelet (PLT) and red blood cell (RBC) have been demonstrated to play a critical role in inflammatory processes. This study aimed to evaluate the association of blood PLT and RBC related parameters with the disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and also to investigate the role of these indices in differentiating among RA patients with different disease activity.

Methods

Clinical data from RA patients were retrospectively analyzed. RA patients were divided into inactive group and active group according to DAS28-CRP. The relationship between blood PLT and RBC counts-related indices and DAS28-CRP was detected by Spearman correlation. ROC curve was used to assess the diagnostic value of these indices in differentiating active RA from inactive RA.

Results

Active RA patients exhibited higher level of PLT counts but significantly lower levels of RBC counts, hemoglobin (Hb), red blood cells-platelet ratio (RPR) and hemoglobin-platelet ratio (HPR) compared with inactive RA. PLT counts were positively but RBC counts, Hb, RPR and HPR were negatively related with DAS28-CRP.

Conclusion

Blood PLT and RBC related indices were significantly associated with RA disease activity. These indices may be used to distinguish active RA from inactive RA.

Correlations of gestational hemoglobin level, placental trace elements content, and reproductive performances in pregnant sows

The iron status of sows has a great influence on reproductive performance. Iron deficiency reduces reproductive performance and newborn piglet survival rate of sow. The hemoglobin is a potential predictor for the iron status of sows and is convenient for rapid detection in pig farms. However, the relationship between iron status, hemoglobin, placental trace elements, and reproductive performance remains unclear. In this study, the hemoglobin and reproductive performance of more than 500 sows with first to sixth parities at different gestation stages (25, 55, 75, 95, and 110 d of gestation) in two large-scale sow farms were collected, and the content of placental Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu was analyzed. The results show that hemoglobin levels of sows during pregnancy (days 75, 95, and 110) decreased significantly (P < 0.001). As the parity increases, the hemoglobin levels of sows at days 25 and 55 of gestation and placental mineral element contents including Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu at delivery decreased (P < 0.05), while the litter size, birth alive, and litter weights increased gradually (P < 0.001). Furthermore, hemoglobin during pregnancy had a negative linear correlation with litter weight and average weight (P < 0.05), and higher hemoglobin at day 25 of gestation may reduce the number of stillbirths (P = 0.05), but higher hemoglobin at day 110 of gestation may tend to be a benefit for the birth (P = 0.01). And there was a significant positive linear correlation between hemoglobin at day 110 of gestation and placental Fe and Mn levels (P = 0.002, P = 0.013). There was also a significant positive linear correlation among Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu in the placenta (P < 0.001). The levels of Fe, Zn, and Mn in the placental at delivery were positively related to the average weight of the fetus (P = 0.048, P = 0.027, P = 0.047), and placental Cu was linearly correlated with litter size (P = 0.029). Our research revealed that the requirements for iron during gestation were varied in different gestation periods and parities. The feeds should be adjusted according to the gestation periods, parities, or iron status to meet the iron requirements of sows and fetal pigs.

Functional coding haplotypes and machine-learning feature elimination identifies predictors of Methotrexate Response in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients

BACKGROUND

Major challenges in large scale genetic association studies include not only the identification of causative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), but also accounting for SNP-SNP interactions. This study thus proposes a novel feature engineering approach integrating potentially functional coding haplotypes (pfcHap) with machine-learning (ML) feature selection to identify biologically meaningful, possibly causative genetic factors, that take into consideration potential SNP-SNP interactions within the pfcHap, to best predict for methotrexate (MTX) response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

METHODS

Exome sequencing from 349 RA patients were analysed, of which they were split into training and unseen test set. Inferred pfcHaps were combined with 30 non-genetic features to undergo ML recursive feature elimination with cross-validation using the training set. Predictive capacity and robustness of the selected features were assessed using six popular machine learning models through a train set cross-validation and evaluated in an unseen test set.

FINDINGS

Significantly, 100 features (95 pfcHaps, 5 non-genetic factors) were identified to have good predictive performance (AUC: 0.776-0.828; Sensitivity: 0.656-0.813; Specificity: 0.684-0.868) across all six ML models in an unseen test dataset for the prediction of MTX response in RA patients.

INTERPRETATION

Majority of the predictive pfcHap SNPs were predicted to be potentially functional and some of the genes in which the pfcHap resides in were identified to be associated with previously reported MTX/RA pathways.

FUNDING

Singapore Ministry of Health's National Medical Research Council (NMRC) [NMRC/CBRG/0095/2015; CG12Aug17; CGAug16M012; NMRC/CG/017/2013]; National Cancer Center Research Fund and block funding Duke-NUS Medical School.; Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 grant MOE2019-T2-1-138.

Role of Hepcidin in Anemia of Chronic Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective Anemia of chronic disease is a frequent consequence in rheumatoid arthritis and is associated with major clinical and patient outcomes. The present cross-sectional study explored the role of hepcidin (HEP) in anemia of chronic disease in rheumatoid arthritis by studying its relationships with markers of anemia, iron metabolism, inflammation, and erythropoiesis. Methods Blood samples from anemic ( n = 43) and nonanemic ( n = 43) rheumatoid arthritis patients were analyzed for markers of anemia (hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, red cells distribution width, and reticulocyte hemoglobin), iron metabolism (iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, transferrin saturation, soluble transferrin receptor), inflammation (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and interleukin 6), and erythropoiesis (erythropoietin and HEP). Correlation analysis was used to identify relationships between HEP and all other variables. Principal component analysis was used to identify common underlying dimensions representing linear combinations of all variables. Results HEP had statistically significant mostly moderate-to-large correlations with markers of anemia (0.30-0.70, all p < 0.01), small correlation with markers of iron metabolism and markers of inflammation ( r = 0.20-0.40, all p < 0.01), and moderate correlations with markers of erythropoiesis. Principal component analysis revealed two underlying components (factors) capturing approximately 50% of total variability. Factor 1 comprised mainly of markers of anemia, iron metabolism, and erythropoiesis and was related to "erythrocyte health status," while factor 2 comprised mainly markers of inflammation and iron metabolism and was related to "acute phase reactants." HEP was the only variable demonstrating substantial loadings on both factors. Conclusions HEP is related to markers of anemia, iron metabolism, inflammation, and erythropoiesis. In addition, when all variables are "reduced" to a minimum number of two "latent" factors, HEP is loaded on both, thus underlying its pivotal role in the complex interaction of the erythropoietic response in inflammation-induced anemia and/or functional iron deficiency.

Restless Leg Syndrome and Sleep Disorders in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Its Relation with Anemia Parameters

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to investigate the prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) and sleep disorders in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and the association of iron deficiency with them.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study included 72 patients with RA (59 females, 13 males), and 50 healthy control subjects (57 females, 15 males). Assessments were made using the International RLS Rating Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Beck anxiety and depression index and the SF-36 quality of life scores.

RESULTS

We found that the frequency of RLS in RA patients was 29.1% and 13.8% in healthy control (p = 0.021). RA patients had 44.4% iron deficiency and 5.5% anemia of chronic disease. We found that 52.3% of patients with iron deficiency had RLS. There was an independent relationship between present of RLS and FSS (Beta [β] = 0.317, p = 0.005) and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) (β = 0.244, p = 0.031). There was an independent relationship between RLS severity score and PSQI (β = 0.264, p = 0.025) and social functionality (β = 0.302, p = 0.009).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of iron deficiency is high in RA in the developing countries. Analysis obtained in patients with RA is suggestive of an association between iron deficiency and increased frequency of RLS. The presence of RLS in patients with RA negatively affects sleep quality, psychiatric status, and quality of life of patients with RA. TIBC value may be a predictive marker for early detection of RLS in patients with RA.

Multiple-dose tranexamic acid for perioperative blood loss in total knee arthroplasty in patients with rheumatoid arthritis：a single-blinded, randomised, parallel-controlled study protocol in China

INTRODUCTION

This clinical trial is designed to evaluate the effect of multiple-dose tranexamic acid (TXA) on perioperative blood loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

A randomised, single-blinded, parallel-controlled study will be designed. Patients with RA (age 50-75 years) undergoing unilateral primary end-stage total knee arthroplasty will be randomly divided into group A or group B. Group A will be treated with one dose of TXA (1 g; intravenous injection 3 hours postsurgery) and group B with three doses (1 g; intravenous injection at 3, 6 and 12 hours postsurgery) after surgery. The primary outcomes will be evaluated with blood loss, maximum haemoglobin drop and transfusion rate. The secondary outcomes will be evaluated with knee function and complications.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The Shanghai Guanghua Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine Ethics Committee approved in this study in July 2019. Informed consent will be obtained from all participants. Results of the trial will be published in the Dryad and repository in a peer-reviewed journal. Additionally, deidentified data collected and analysed for this study will be available for review from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

ChiCTR1900025013.

Serum hepcidin level, iron metabolism and osteoporosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Hepcidin, a major regulator of iron metabolism and homeostasis, is regulated by inflammation. Recent studies have suggested that hepcidin and iron metabolism are involved in osteoporosis, and the aim of this study was to determine whether serum hepcidin levels are correlated with the degree of osteoporosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A total of 262 patients with RA (67.5 ± 11.4 years; 77.5% female) were enrolled. Serum iron, ferritin, and hepcidin levels were positively correlated each other. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the serum iron level was positively correlated with femoral T and Z scores, whereas the serum hepcidin level was not. Serum hepcidin level was correlated with the serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D level, which was in turn positively related to the femoral Z score. Serum hepcidin and serum iron were indirectly and directly related to osteoporosis in patients with RA.