Prealbumin is a blood component tested for nutrition monitoring, which could be affected during inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between prealbumin and C-reactive protein (CRP) in inflammatory rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), including Takayasu arteritis, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Behcet's disease and polymyositis/dermatomyositis.
A total of 52 healthy controls and 508 RMD patients were included. We collected 3714 clinical and laboratory records from June 2011 to August 2019, and the longest follow-up period was eleven years. The associations between prealbumin and CRP, the globulin gap, the albumin-to-globulin ratio, and IgG were evaluated.
Prealbumin had a high correlation coefficient (r=-0.497, 
Prealbumin is closely related to CRP in Chinese patients with five chronic inflammatory RMDs, which may be due to the influence of chronic inflammation during the course of disease.