Serum GDF-15 Levels for Rheumatoid Arthritis Activity Prediction

100 female rheumatoid arthritis patients and 55 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled to assess serum Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15) as a biomarker for disease activity. The study, authored by Kamal Esalatmanesh of Kashan University of Medical Sciences, measured GDF-15 levels using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit from eBioscience. Results indicate a GDF-15 cut-off value higher than 705 pg/ml predicts high RA activity with 96% sensitivity and 92% specificity.

Use Cases

• Predicting high rheumatoid arthritis disease activity based on serum GDF-15 levels.
• Developing a clinical diagnostic rule using the identified 705 pg/ml cut-off value.
• Correlating biomarker levels with disease activity categories (high, moderate, low, none).

Strengths

• Includes a control group of 55 age-matched healthy females for comparison.
• Reports specific GDF-15 serum level means and standard deviations for four disease activity states.
• Provides a clinically relevant cut-off value (705 pg/ml) with reported sensitivity (96%) and specificity (92%).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or demographic bias inherent to a single clinical study.

Provenance

Source

Kashan University of Medical Sciences

Collection Method

Clinical study using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits.