This study involved 40 pathological cases (5 males and 35 females) of age
ranging from 27 to 66 years;They were suffering from classical or definite
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as defined be the diagnostic criteria of American
rheumatism association. Another group comprising apparently healthy
individuals of matched age and sex and living under the same environmental
and relevant socioeconomic conditions were selected to serve as reference
group. All patients and reference group were subjected to: full clinical
history, full clinical examination, laboratory investigations included:
haematological investigations: CBC, platelet count and ESR; biochemical
investigations: alkaline phosphatase, aminotranferases, creatinine
and B2-microglobulin (B2-M) by enzyme irnmuonoassay; serological investigations:
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) by enzyme immunoassay method, CRP,
RF by late agglutination slide test . The findings showed that there was a
significant increase in serum IL-6 level in patients with RA as compared
to controls; there was a significant correlation between serum IL-6 and
acute phase reactants as estimated by ESR & CRP; there was a significant
correlation between serum IL-6 & rheumatoid activity & platelet counts;
no significant difference in serum IL-6 level was observed when patients
with RA were divided according to line of treatment; there was a significant
increase in serum B2-M in RA patients as compared to controls and it
was well correlated with rheumatoid activity and acute phase reactants as
measured by CRP & ESR and finally there was a positive significant correlation
between SCUM IL-6 and serum B2-M. So, serial estimation of IL-6
and B2-M may be useful in disease assessment. The feature availability of
inhibitors of IL-6 inroduction or antagonists could lead to development of
an effective theraputic agent for this disease. |
