Diagnostic value of serum anti-Müllerian hormone in girls with juvenile idiopathic arthritis during puberty

Background. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common and severe immune-inflammatory diseases in humans and is associated with a great medical and socio-economic burden. RA can have a significant impact on family planning and fertility; women with RA have fewer children than expected, and patients with RA tend to take longer to achieve the desired pregnancy. Measuring anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels is important in assessing ovarian reserve (OR). There are many studies on OR, but no generally accepted tools are available to identify adolescent girls with reduced OR. There is little data on "normal OR" and the factors that affect it. Aim. To study the markers of the OR status in adolescent girls with juvenile arthritis and to establish their prognostic significance for the reproductive function. Materials and methods. The study was conducted at the Samara Regional Clinical Cardiology Dispensary named after V.P. Polyakov with the support of the medical company INVITRO. It included 42 girls aged 11–17 with a diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (main group) and 9 somatically healthy girls (comparison group). Patients completed a questionnaire, medical history data were reviewed, and blood sampling for AMH testing was performed. Results. The AMH measurements showed statistically significant differences between all groups; in particular, in group 1, the levels were lower (p=0.000334, the Mann–Whitney test was used). Boxplots were plotted to visualize the differences between the analyzed parameters. Conclusion. According to the literature and authors' observations, the role of AMH as a sensitive and specific biomarker of ovarian reserve in girls with diseases that impair steroidogenesis (including juvenile idiopathic arthritis) has been established. AMH level can help make therapeutic decisions, have prognostic significance, and help to identify risk groups of adolescent girls at an early stage.