Research Article: Association between CALLY index and all-cause mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Abstract:
The CALLY index reflects immune, inflammatory, and nutritional status, but its prognostic role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains uncertain. We investigated whether the CALLY index was independently associated with all-cause mortality in patients with RA, and further examined its nonlinear pattern, and consistency across clinical subgroups.
We included 5,626 participants with RA from the UK Biobank, with a median follow-up of 15.6?years. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess the association between the CALLY index and all-cause mortality. Restricted cubic splines were used to explore potential nonlinearity. Predictive performance was evaluated using time-dependent ROC analysis, IDI, and NRI. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the findings.
A higher CALLY index was independently associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in RA patients. This association showed a nonlinear inverse dose–response pattern, with an estimated inflection point of 1.054. The CALLY index showed better reclassification than its individual components and achieved non-inferior predictive performance compared with the combined three-biomarker model. The association was broadly consistent in clinical subgroups and stable in sensitivity analyses.
The CALLY index may serve as a simple, low-cost biomarker for long-term mortality risk stratification in patients with RA.
Introduction:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by persistent systemic inflammation ( 1 , 2 ). Compared with the general population, patients with RA have a higher long-term risk of death, mainly due to cardiovascular disease, malignancy, and inflammation-related organ damage ( 3 – 7 ). Better prognostic assessment is important for clinical follow-up and management of these patients. Clinically, C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and lymphocyte levels are commonly used to reflect…
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