Enhanced Association of Novel Cardiovascular Biomarkers Fetuin-A and Catestatin with Serological and Inflammatory Markers in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and mortality. This work aimed to evaluate the serum levels of the novel CV biomarkers fetuin-A (fet-A), Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1), galectin-3 (Gal-3), interleukin-32 (IL-32), and catestatin (CST) in RA patients and their associations with RA parameters and CVD markers. A cohort of 199 RA patients was assessed for traditional CVD risk factors, RA disease activity, and biomarker levels. Carotid ultrasound was used to measure carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque presence (cPP). Multivariate analyses examined correlations between biomarkers and RA parameters, serological markers, and CVD markers. Adjusted models showed that elevated CST expression levels were associated with rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) positivity (OR = 2.45, <i>p</i> = 0.0001 and OR = 1.48, <i>p</i> = 0.04, respectively) in the overall cohort and for RF in men and women, respectively. In addition, fet-A concentration was inversely associated with the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in the overall cohort (β = -0.15, <i>p</i> = 0.038) and in women (β = -0.25, <i>p</i> = 0.004). Fet-A levels were also negatively correlated with disease activity (DAS28-ESR) scores (β = -0.29, <i>p</i> = 0.01) and fibrinogen concentration (β = -0.22, <i>p</i> = 0.01) in women. No adjusted associations were observed for Gal-3, DKK-1 or IL32 concentration. The study revealed no significant associations between the biomarkers and cIMT or cPP. The measurement of CST and fet-A levels could enhance RA patient management and prognosis. However, the utility of biomarkers for evaluating CV risk via traditional surrogate markers is limited, highlighting the need for continued investigations into their roles in RA.