Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic auto-immune-mediated inflammatory arthritis that affects around one percent of the human population. One of the common comorbidities encountered in rheumatoid patients is anemia. Hepcidin being one of the acute-phase reactant proteins, it acts as a homeostatic regulator of iron metabolism and as an inflammatory mediator as well. Aim of The Work: This study aims to evaluate the value of measuring serum hepcidin levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its relationship with clinical disease activity and blood parameters.
Methods: fifty RA patients underwent full medical assessment with the evaluation of DAS-28 score, laboratory tests including CBC, ESR, rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP, serum ferritin and serum iron, and serum hepcidin level.
Results: Our results showed that there was a statistically significant correlation between inflammatory markers and serum hepcidin level, as well as a positive correlation between the degree of disease activity measured by DAS 28 score with serum hepcidin level. Conclusion: We concluded from our study that serum hepcidin can be used to assess the disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis patients and rheumatoid-related anemias as well.