Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic chronic autoimmune disease characterized by symmetric polyarthritis. It is also proved that patients with RA are more prone for premature atherosclerosis resulting in cardiovascular accidents (CVA). Alterations in lipid profile is commonly seen in these patients. We conducted this study to compare lipid profile of patients with RA with Rheumatoid factor (RF) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Materials and methods: A prospective case-control study was conducted on 50 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 50 healthy controls. Blood samples obtained from such patients attending out-patient department were tested for RF, CRP and lipid profile including total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride (TGL). Results: In our study, we did not find strong positive or negative correlation between RF, CRP and lipid profile. We noted a weak positive correlation between RF and LDL and total cholesterol (TC). We also observed a weak negative correlation between RF and TGL, HDL and very low -density lipoprotein (VLDL). There was a weak positive correlation between CRP and LDL and a weak negative correlation between CRP and TC, HDL, VLDL and TGL. Conclusion: In our study we could not find any gross variation in lipid profile in patients with RA but there was a weak correlation between RF, CRP and lipid profile. This could be due to small sample size. Future studies with large sample size may help to give a satistically significant correlation.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; Lipid profile; Cardiovascular accidents; C-reactive protein.