Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Levels in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

What is it about?

Introduction The aim of our study was to investigate the vascular endothelial growth factor levels in joint swelling-positive and joint swelling-negative rheumatoid arthritis patients and to then examine the relationship between conventional parameters such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the levels of C-reactive protein, rheumatoid factor, and anti-cyclic citrullinated protein. Methods Fifty-nine (52 women and seven men) rheumatoid arthritis patients and 25 (20 women and five men) healthy individuals volunteered for this study. The patient group was divided into two sub-groups based on whether or not they exhibited joint swelling. Results The levels of vascular endothelial growth factor in the joint swelling-negative group were significantly different from those in the joint swelling-positive group, but they were not different from those in the control group (p=0.001 and p=0.72, respectively). We investigated the correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor and C-reactive protein levels (r=0.37, p=0.001). We also evaluated the diagnostic adequacy of vascular endothelial growth factor and created a ROC curve. The area under the curve was calculated to be 0.767. Conclusion Vascular endothelial growth factor is an adequate diagnostic biomarker and can successfully be used to predict the occurrence of rheumatoid synovitis based on local inflammation.

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Why is it important?

The major finding of our study was that the level of VEGF in the joint swelling-negative group was significantly different from that of the joint swelling-positive group but not different from that of the control group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.72, respectively). VEGF is an adequate diagnostic marker for RA and can more successfully predict synovitis-based local inflammation.

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