The association between serum salusin-α and salusin-β levels with subclinical atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study aims to assess the association between serum salusin-α and salusin-β levels with carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) in RA patients. In this cross-sectional study, cases from a prospective cohort of RA were consecutively enrolled. Subclinical atherosclerosis was defined as CIMT > 0.9 mm. The study included 116 RA patients without history of CVD. The median (IQR) serum salusin-α and salusin-β levels were 887 (697, 2165) and 50 (43, 87) pg/ml, respectively. The mean ± SD of CIMT was 0.60 ± 0.25 pg/ml. In 19 (16.4%) patients, CIMT was > 0.9. A significant correlation was observed between serum salusin-β levels with CIMT (r = 0.536, P = 0.001). However, there was no significant correlation between serum salusin-α levels CIMT (r=-0.064, P = 0.485). we constructed three linear regression models to examine the independent effect of serum salusin-β on CIMT. serum salusin-β was significantly associated with higher CIMT (β = 0.003, 95% CI: 0.002–0.003, P-value = 0.001). the R2 value for the CIMT was 0.467. Finaly, ROC curves were plotted. The cut-off values of salusin-α and salusin-𝛽 for detecting high CIMT were 784.40 and 66.75 pg/ml with sensitivities of 52.6% and 75% and specificities of 32% and 78.1%, respectively. In the present study, we found a correlation between serum salusin-β and CIMT in RA patients and demonstrated the possible potential role of this peptide as a biomarker in RA patients. However, further research involving larger numbers of subjects and prospective multicenter studies is needed to explain and clarify this observation.