Comparison of hematological markers between rheumatoid factor positive and rheumatoid factor negative patients

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease primarily affecting the joints producing a chronic non-suppurative inflammatory synovitis that transforms into an inflammatory multi-systemic disorder. The diagnosis of RA relies on radiological findings along with positive Rheumatoid Factor (RF). Aims and objectives: This study focuses on the role of haematological markers (HM) in patients with RA. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study. Twenty-One RF positive and Twenty-five RF negative patients with other inflammatory conditions were included in the study. The hemogram reports were retrieved from hospital records for calculation of the HM, Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII), Neutrophil-to-Haemoglobin and lymphocyte score (NHL), Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio (NHL), and Platelet-to-Lymphocyte ratio (PLR). Test of statistical significance was done using Student’s T test and Mann Whitney U test. p-value ≤0.05 was statistically significant. Results: The mean and standard deviation of SII, NHL, NLR and PLR for RF positive patients are 1852.22±1557.67, 66.67±67.17,5.17±5.37,242.79±121.44 respectively. The mean and standard deviation of SII, NHL, NLR and PLR for RF negative patients are 1631.92±2497.29, 63.73±71.05, 5.29±5.72, 184.80±116 respectively. The p-value of SII, NHL, NLR and PLR is 0.7099, 0.8811, 0.9394, 0.0907 respectively. Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences in the levels of SII, NHL, and NLR between RF-positive and RF-negative patients (p>0.05 for all). PLR demonstrated a borderline trend toward significance (p=0.0907), suggesting that it may differ between the groups and could warrant further investigation in larger cohorts.