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Published on: May 16, 2025
The relationship between hematological indices of systemic inflammation and disease activity in patients with
Zahra Nourmohammadi1, Meysam Olfatifar2, Mohammad Reza Ahmadi1
1Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Qom University of Medical Science, Qom, Iran.
Objective:
Monitoring rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity is crucial for treatment optimization. Hematological indices (SII, SIRI, NLR, PLR, MLR) show promise as systemic inflammation biomarkers. This study assessed their correlation with RA disease activity versus healthy controls.
Methods:
This retrospective cross-sectional study included 204 ACR/EULAR-classified RA patients and 216 age-/sex-matched controls. Complete blood counts enabled calculation of SII (neutrophils × platelets/lymphocytes), SIRI (neutrophils × monocytes/lymphocytes), NLR, PLR, and MLR. Disease activity was measured via DAS-28-ESR.
Results:
RA patients (96.2% female, age 50.9 ± 12.4 years) demonstrated significantly elevated indices versus controls (94.4% female, age 47.2 ± 11.9 years): SII (722.7 ± 695.2 vs. 563.1 ± 448.9; p = 0.006), SIRI (12.36 ± 9.46 vs. 10.32 ± 5.78; p = 0.009), PLR (12.10 ± 14.40 vs. 9.64 ± 9.67; p = 0.039), MLR (0.21 ± 0.19 vs. 0.17 ± 0.08; p = 0.015). Among RA patients, active disease (DAS-28 > 2.6) exhibited significantly higher SII (780.6 ± 826.1 vs. 614.4 ± 310.4; p = 0.040) than remission. ROC analysis identified SII/SIRI as strong predictors (AUC train/test: 0.946/0.898).
Conclusion:
Hematological indices were significantly higher in RA patients and associated with disease activity. SII and SIRI demonstrated superior predictive capability for active RA. Key Points • This retrospective cross-sectional study included 204 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 216 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. • Hematological indices including SII, SIRI, NLR, PLR, and MLR were significantly higher in RA patients compared to controls. • Among these indices, SII and SIRI showed the strongest correlation with disease activity measured by DAS-28. • SII and SIRI demonstrated excellent predictive performance for distinguishing active disease from remission, suggesting their potential as simple and cost-effective biomarkers for clinical monitoring.
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