الفهرس 
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Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease that affects the synovial tissue of multiple joints of the body. Unless properly managed, RA eventually causes cartilage and bone loss leading to progressive disabilities, early death and major socioeconomic burdens.
One of the three main risk factors concerning the prognosis of RA is high disease activity and patients with long-standing high disease activity are at substantially increased risk of mortality. The most commonly used disease activity index nowadays is the DAS28 which incorporates either the ESR or CRP. Many studies however, showed that both the ESR and CRP fall short of detecting a significant portion of patients with active disease. In attempt to find a more reliable and accurate biomarker of RA disease activity, we aimed to assess the role of serum calprotectin in reflecting the disease activity of RA patients.
Calprotectin is a 24-kDA heterodimeric protein that is made of 2 subunits: α subunit and β subunit. It is mostly expressed in neutrophils but is also found in many other cells including monocytes, dendritic cells and fibroblasts. When released, CLP exaggerates the inflammatory process in the arthritic joints by promoting the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines and recruiting more neutrophils and monocytes. In return, these recruited cells along with the natant synovial fibroblasts and chondrocytes express more CLP and hence amplify cartilage destruction and bone resorption.
The presented study was conducted on 50 RA patients > 18 years fulfilling the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for RA and 45 age and sex-matched healthy controls. Patients were recruited from the outpatient clinics of Physical Medicine, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Department, Main University Hospital.
The results of the curre