Abstract
Background: Arthritis is a common autoimmune and inflammatory condition that affects joints and multiple organ systems, is a major public health concern especially in the South Asian community. While there is extensive information available in the literature regarding haematological and immunological biomarkers of the disease, there is paucity of comparative data in the district of Gujrat in Punjab, Pakistan. Goal: To comparatively analyze the hematological and immunological biomarkers in patients of arthritis and also differentiate seropositive from seronegative arthritis patients in Gujrat region. Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study was conducted in the Khurram Shezad hospital, at Gujrat from January till April 2026, including 100 confirmed arthritis patients including 52 males and 48 females. Complete blood count (CBC) was done on Swe-Lab CBC analyzer. The amount of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood was determined by Micro Lab 300 and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was measured by Westergren method. Latex agglutination was used to determine RA factor. IBM SPSS v27 was used for data analysis.
Results: 69% of the patients were RA factor positive. Average hemoglobin level was 11.55 ± 1.87 g/dL, which was within the range of anemia. ESR mean was 18.41 ± 5.91 mm/hr with a maximum of 30 mm/hr. CRP ranged from 1.8 to 8.5 mg/L (mean: 5.82 ± 1.59). Total leukocytes count (TLC) ranged up to 18050 cells/μL (mean: 11740.95 ± 3437.47), which suggests a systemic inflammation and concurrent infections. The 55% of patients in the sample were urban patients. Mean patient age was 46.29 ± 17.64 years (range 11–95). Conclusions: The results indicated that inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP and TLC) were elevated in arthritis patients and hemoglobin was decreased which means that arthritis patients in Gujrat have concurrent anemia and inflammation in their body. Laboratory investigation is a key part of the management of arthritis and a comparative biomarker profile is good at separating seropositive from seronegative patients.