Serum soluble interleukin 2 receptor levels and radiological progression in early rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between serum soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels and radiological changes in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS

sIL-2R levels from 155 patients with active RA were measured by immunoassay over a 2 year period and the associations with radiological change and other measures of disease activity were analyzed.

RESULTS

The area under the curve for sIL-2R is weakly associated with the change in the modified Larsen score over a 2 year period; this is weaker than the association of radiological change with serum C-reactive protein.

CONCLUSION

We found no significant association of sIL-2R levels with erosive change in early RA.