Correlations between serum acute-phase protein SAA, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and disease activity in ankylosing spondylitis
- 1Department of Pain and Rehabilitation, Wuhan Third Hospital Graduate Joint Training Base, School of Medicine , Wuhan University of Science and Technology , ,
- 2Orthopedics Department , Shiyan People's Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Medicine , ,
- 3Department of Pain and Rehabilitation, Wuhan Clinical Research Center for Acupotomy Medicine, Wuhan Third Hospital , ,
Abstract
Background
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease characterized by sacroiliitis and spinal osteophyte formation that needs sophisticated testing to improve the accuracy of activity assessment and clinical decision-making.Objective
To investigate the clinical value of serum amyloid A (SAA) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in assessing disease activity in patients with AS.Methods
Using the bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI), 160 AS patients were categorized into 3 subgroups: low activity (BASDAI <4, n = 60), moderate activity (4≤ BASDAI <6, n = 50), and high activity (BASDAI ≥6, n = 50). Quantitative measurements included SAA concentrations and PLR values, with subsequent analysis of their relationship to disease progression. Diagnostic performance was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve methodology.Results
The high-activity group showed significantly elevated SAA (48.3 mg/L ± 9.1 mg/L) and PLR (164.5 ± 29.2) versus moderate- (SAA: 29.0 mg/L ± 8.2 mg/L; PLR: 138.4 ± 27.6) and low-activity groups (SAA: 14.3 [11.7-17.2] mg/L; PLR: 102.7 ± 22.2) (all P < 0.001). Both markers correlated strongly with BASDAI (SAA: r = 0.76; PLR: r = 0.71, P < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated that an SAA cutoff of 30.6 mg/L predicted high activity (96% sensitivity, 80% specificity), while PLR ≥143.7 showed 78.0% sensitivity and 76.4% specificity. Combined detection achieved superior area under the curve (0.95) versus individual markers (SAA: 0.93; PLR: 0.86).Conclusion
SAA and PLR are strongly associated with BASDAI-defined disease activity in AS, and combined assessment improves identification of high disease activity, supporting their potential role as objective adjunctive markers in clinical assessment.
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BibTeX
@article{yu2026correlations,
title = {{Correlations between serum acute-phase protein SAA, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and disease activity in ankylosing spondylitis}},
author = {NingNing Yu and TaiZhe Wang and ZhiGang Liu},
journal = {Asian biomedicine : research, reviews and news},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.2478/abm-2026-0027},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718364},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Correlations between serum acute-phase protein SAA, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and disease activity in ankylosing spondylitis
AU - NingNing Yu
AU - TaiZhe Wang
AU - ZhiGang Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
JO - Asian biomedicine : research, reviews and news
DO - 10.2478/abm-2026-0027
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718364
AB - Background Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease characterized by sacroiliitis and spinal osteophyte formation that needs sophisticated testing to improve the accuracy of activity assessment and clinical decision-making.Objective To investigate the clinical value of serum amyloid A (SAA) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in assessing disease activity in patients with AS.Methods Using the bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI), 160 AS patients were categorized into 3 subgroups: low activity (BASDAI <4, n = 60), moderate activity (4≤ BASDAI <6, n = 50), and high activity (BASDAI ≥6, n = 50). Quantitative measurements included SAA concentrations and PLR values, with subsequent analysis of their relationship to disease progression. Diagnostic performance was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve methodology.Results The high-activity group showed significantly elevated SAA (48.3 mg/L ± 9.1 mg/L) and PLR (164.5 ± 29.2) versus moderate- (SAA: 29.0 mg/L ± 8.2 mg/L; PLR: 138.4 ± 27.6) and low-activity groups (SAA: 14.3 [11.7-17.2] mg/L; PLR: 102.7 ± 22.2) (all P < 0.001). Both markers correlated strongly with BASDAI (SAA: r = 0.76; PLR: r = 0.71, P < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated that an SAA cutoff of 30.6 mg/L predicted high activity (96% sensitivity, 80% specificity), while PLR ≥143.7 showed 78.0% sensitivity and 76.4% specificity. Combined detection achieved superior area under the curve (0.95) versus individual markers (SAA: 0.93; PLR: 0.86).Conclusion SAA and PLR are strongly associated with BASDAI-defined disease activity in AS, and combined assessment improves identification of high disease activity, supporting their potential role as objective adjunctive markers in clinical assessment.
SN - 1905-7415
SN - 1875-855X
ER -