Relationship between serum calprotectin (S100A8/9) and clinical, laboratory and ultrasound parameters of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis: A large cohort study

Calprotectin may be a sensitive biomarker of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity. In the current study, we investigated whether calprotectin is a better biomarker than CRP for predicting clinical activity and ultrasound parameters in patients with RA. A total of 160 patients with RA underwent clinical (swollen joint count-SJC, tender joint count-TJC, Disease Activity Score-DAS28, Clinical Disease Activity Index-CDAI, and simplified Disease Activity Index-SDAI) and ultrasound (German US7) examination. Clinical and laboratory measures were correlated with ultrasound findings using Spearman´s correlation coefficient. Differences in serum calprotectin levels in patients with variable disease activity according to the DAS28-ESR and CDAI scores were assessed using ANOVA. Multivariate regression analysis was used to determine the predictive values of calprotectin, CRP and SJC for CDAI and PD US synovitis scores. Serum calprotectin was significantly associated with DAS28-ESR (r = 0.321, p