CRP and infection: Then, to investigate the inflammatory status of patients, we performed a study of blood biomarkers of inflammation or infection that could easily be used in an outpatient setting, such as proteins and cytokines associated with inflammation, immune reaction or autoimmune disease activity (C-reactive protein [CRP] and beta-2 microglobulin) [10–12], vascular endothelial growth factor-A [VEGF] [13], interleukin 2 [IL2] [14, 15], interleukin 6 [IL6] [16]).