The comparison of Iron and Ferritin serum level in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients and healthy individuals

The rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease and a stable progressive inflammatory disorder in synovial tissue. It seems that both cell-mediate immune responses and humoral immunity play roles in causing this disease. Oxidative stress and changes in the amount of trace elements play an important role in the progress of the disease. The aim of the current study was to compare the Iron and Ferritin serum levels in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients and healthy individuals.
This study was a case-control research in which 44 patients suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and 44 healthy individuals were investigated that they were all homogenous in terms of age and gender. The iron was estimated by photometric measurement and the development of ferrous-ferroin colored complex. The amount of ferritin in the serum was measured by architect autoanalyzer. The data were analyzed through covariance and Mann-Whitney tests using SPSS software at the significant level lower than P The results showed that the levels of iron and ferritin evaluated in patients (mean ± SD) were 59.97±6.65, 99.20±11.69, respectively, and in control group are 69.77±4.52, 44.79±7.14. This difference was not significant in iron (P>0.05), but it was not significant in serum ferritin (P It seems that there is a correlation between the amounts of ferritin with rheumatoid arthritis. Iron is suspicious to be an effective factor in rheumatoid arthritis.