Impact of Fasting on Inflammatory Responses in Sudanese Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Abstract

This cross-sectional case-control study aimed to investigate the effects of fasting in influencing the hematological and inflammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis patients. In this study, samples were collected from RA patients who were RF positive and anti-CCP positive during the month of Ramadan, 31 samples from the fasting group, and 31 samples from the non-fasting patients. Data was collected from patients using questionnaires and existing laboratory data. The tlcs, differential leukocyte count, ESR and hs-CRP were tested for each patient using Sysmex kx-21N device and automated ELISA, and analyzed using SPSS program for the fasting and the non-fasting groups. For the fasting RA group ESR values were significantly higher (p-value= 0.014) compared to the non-fasting RA group. Fasting RA group also obtained higher hs-CRP values (p-value= 0.00) compared to the non-fasting RA group. The absolute monocyte count revealed significantly higher values (p-value=0.013) in the fasting RA group than the non-fasting group. The tlcs, absolute neutrophil count and absolute lymphocyte count (p-value=0.942, p-value=0.451, p-value=0.877) respectively, revealed insignificant results between the fasting and non-fasting RA patients. This study concludes that fasting for 12-14 hours per day, is associated with the reduction of the inflammation progression in rheumatoid arthritis patients.