• Biagio Di Lorenzo, Stefano Zoroddu, Arduino A Mangoni, Salvatore Sotgia, Panagiotis Paliogiannis, Gian Luca Erre, Ciriaco Carru, and Angelo Zinellu.
• Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
• Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 2024 Oct 1; 54 (10): e14257e14257.

BackgroundAmong the Pentraxins, the long Pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) is associated with several processes, particularly in the earliest phases of the innate humoral response. Increased blood PTX-3 concentrations have been observed in a wide range of conditions, from infectious to cardiovascular disorders. Since its increase is more rapid than C-reactive protein (CRP), PTX-3 can be useful to detect and monitor early inflammation. To dissect its pathophysiological role in rheumatic diseases (RD), we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing blood PTX-3 concentrations in RD patients and healthy individuals and investigating possible associations with clinical, demographic, and study characteristics.MethodsWe performed a search of published evidence until April 2024 in PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus, which led to the selection of 60 relevant manuscripts from a total of 1072 records.ResultsOur synthesis revealed a statistically significant difference in PTX-3 concentrations between RD patients and controls (standard mean difference, SMD = 1.02, 95% CI 0.77-1.26, p < .001), that correlated with CRP concentrations. The effect size was associated with geographical region of study conduction, RD type, with a reduction of the observed heterogeneity in patients with low LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations.ConclusionsOur study has shown a significant increase in blood PTX-3 concentrations in RD patients, which was associated with specific patient characteristics. Nevertheless, additional studies are needed to better define the utility of measuring PTX-3 in the early phase of RD. Our study was conducted in compliance with the PRISMA 2020 statement (study protocol available at PROSPERO CRD42024516600).© 2024 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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