Strong association between acute phase reactants (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and the familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in patients but not with the MEFV genotype

  • 02 Jul 2022
  • Recently published Research - Pharmacy

Researchers

Rami Jarjour & Wafika Zarzour

Published in

Human Gene (formerly known as “Meta Gene”), Vol. 33, article 201045, version of record (May), 2022.

 


Abstract

Background and objective: FMF (Familial Mediterranean fever) is an autoinflammatory hereditary disease with autosomal-recessive mode of inheritance.

The main objective of our research was to establish if there is a link between acute phase reactants (APRs) (i.e. hs-CRP and ESR) and FMF in patients compared to controls at the time of diagnosis and before starting colchicine therapy. We also tried to find out if there is an association between the MEFV gene genotypes in FMF patients and APRs (ESR and hs-CRP). Moreover, we tried to find if there is a link between M694V genotypes and the hs-CRP and ESR levels.

Results: This study was achieved on 101 FMF patients (group I), as well as 107 healthy individuals (group II). hs-CRP values ranged from 0.02 to 104 mg/L and from 0.1 to 5.29 mg/L in groups I and II, respectively. Mean hs-CRP was 7.97 ± 18.58 and 1.23 ± 1.58 mg/L in groups I and II, respectively. The p-value is 0.000243 which strongly indicates a significant difference between both groups. ESR values ranged between 1 and 75 mm in 1 h in group I and between 0.1 and 3.6 mm in one hour in group II. Mean ESR was 17.25 ± 19.40 and 1.31 ± 1.21 mm in one hour in group I and II, respectively. The p-value is <0.00001 which indicates a significant difference between both groups. However, our study did not indicate any link between genotypes of MEFV mutations and hs-CRP levels and ESR in our patients, in addition to the lack of a strong link between the M694V mutation and hs-CRP levels and ESR.

Conclusion: Our data show the significance of hs-CRP levels and ESR in patients with FMF when diagnosing the disease, before starting the colchicine treatment and in attack-free periods, which may give us an impression about the disease severity.

Keywords: Acute phase reactants (APRs), ESR, Familial Mediterranean fever, FMF, hs-CRP, MEFV genotype.

Link to abstract

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humgen.2022.201045