RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Diagnostic Significance of Serum Sclerostin in Early Detection of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Syrian Patients
Rama Hussein1, *, Imad Aboukhamis1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 17
E-location ID: e18743129257178
Publisher ID: e18743129257178
DOI: 10.2174/0118743129257178231005074615
Article History:
Received Date: 14/04/2023Revision Received Date: 15/08/2023
Acceptance Date: 13/09/2023
Electronic publication date: 23/10/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with joint deformities and local bone erosions. Sclerostin is an inhibitor of the Wnt pathway and drives to reduce bone formation.
Aims:
Our study aimed to compare the diagnostic significance of sclerostin with anti-CCP (anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide; normal level<20 IU/ml, and rheumatoid factor (RF; normal level<16 IU/ml) for the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in Syrian patients.
Methods:
This study contained fifty-eight RA patients and thirty healthy individuals who were equally age- and sex-matched. Serum sclerostin and serum anti-CCP (IgG) levels were evaluated by using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RA activity was assessed based on disease activity scores (DAS28).
Results:
Our results indicated that serum levels of sclerostin levels were higher in the RA group than in the healthy group (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between serum sclerostin and DAS28-ESR (r=0.413, p=0.001). By ROC curve, the most optimal cut-off value of sclerostin was 249.69 pg/ml (AUC was 0.910 with 95% confidence interval (CI) values (0.852-0.969), sensitivity of 87.9%, and specificity of 93.3%) [Odds Ratio (OR) and P-value: 102, P< 0.0001]. In RA patients, the sensitivity and specificity of anti-CCP were 74.1% and 90%, and 70.6% and 86.6% of RF, respectively.
Conclusion:
Increased serum sclerostin may aid as a new prognostic biomarker for evaluating the activity of RA. Sclerostin showed higher sensitivity and specificity than anti-CCP and RF-IgM antibodies. Therefore, sclerostin is a sensitive and specific biomarker for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
