Related Experiment Videos
Urinary thrombomodulin in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: relationship to disease subset
1Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Niigata University School of Medicine, Japan.
Insights
Urinary thrombomodulin (TM) levels are significantly elevated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients compared to healthy individuals. TM may help differentiate RA disease severity, unlike standard inflammation markers.
Area of Science:
- Rheumatology
- Biochemistry
- Biomarker Discovery
Background:
- Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease.
- Current inflammation markers like ESR and CRP have limitations in differentiating RA subtypes.
- Urinary thrombomodulin (TM) is a potential biomarker for kidney damage and inflammation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate urinary thrombomodulin (TM) concentrations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
- To assess if urinary TM can differentiate between RA disease severity subsets.
- To compare urinary TM levels with traditional inflammation markers (ESR, CRP).
Main Methods:
- Collected urinary samples from 110 RA patients and age-matched healthy controls.
- Measured urinary thrombomodulin (TM) concentration, normalized to creatinine (Cre).
- Analyzed TM levels across RA subsets: least erosive disease (LES), more erosive disease (MES), and mutilating disease (MUD).
Main Results:
- Urinary TM concentration was significantly higher in RA patients (74.4 ng/mg Cre) than controls (49.9 ng/mg Cre).
- TM levels were highest in the mutilating disease (MUD) subset (92.6 ng/mg Cre), significantly differing from LES and MES subsets.
- Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) did not significantly differ between MES and MUD groups.
Conclusions:
- Urinary thrombomodulin (TM) is a potential biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
- Urinary TM levels may help distinguish between different RA disease severity subsets.
- Unlike ESR and CRP, urinary TM shows potential for differentiating RA disease progression and severity.
Abstract:
In 110 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the mean (+/- SD) urinary thrombomodulin (TM) concentration was 74.4+/-19.5 ng/mg creatinine (Cre), which was significantly higher than the mean in age-matched healthy controls (49.9+/-10.8 ng/mg Cre; p<0.0001). The mean urinary TM concentration in the RA subset with least erosive disease (LES) was 65.2+/-12.4 ng/mg Cre (n = 41), with more erosive disease (MES) was 77.4+/-20.4 ng/mg Cre (n = 58) and with mutilating disease (MUD) was 92.6+/-20.2 ng/mg Cre (n = 11). TM in the MUD group was the highest of the three subsets (ANOVA, p<0.0001). By contrast, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the MES and MUD groups were not significantly different. Urinary TM levels may allow differentiation of RA subsets, unlike markers of inflammation such as ESR and CRP.