Abstract
Background Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), which is characterised
by recurrent episodes of fever with serositis, is associated with ongoing
inflammation without clinical findings during attack-free periods, leading
to amyloidosis, the most important complication of FMF. The objective of
this study was to investigate the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio
(CAR) as a marker to identify subclinical inflammation in symptom-free FMF
children and compare the CAR with other systemic inflammatory markers such
as mean platelet volume (MPV), red cell distribution width (RDW),
neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte
ratio (PLR).
Material and Methods We included 100 patients and 70 healthy subjects.
Hospital records were obtained to collect data on laboratory findings and
genetic mutations.
Results We found that the CAR levels of our FMF patients were
significantly higher than those of the control group. We also evaluated that
the CAR values had a higher area-under-the-curve value than the other
systemic inflammation parameters including CRP, MPV, RDW, NLR, PLR based on
Receiver-Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis.
Conclusion It is important to identify subclinical inflammation in FMF
patients with simple, reliable, easily accessible markers to avoid
amyloidosis. Although the CAR might be used to assess subclinical
inflammation in paediatric FMF patients, the prognostic value of CAR is not
superior to CRP. Merging CRP and albumin into a single index thus provides
no additional benefit in detecting subclinical inflammation in FMF.
Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in children with familial Mediterranean fever: original article
