CEL and rheumatoid arthritis: The BSSL plasma levels in RA patients also correlated with total leukocyte (rs = 0.58, p = 0.004) and neutrophil counts (rs = 0.61, p = 0.002) (Fig 7), and almost, but not significantly with ESR (rs = 0.38, p = 0.074) and CRP (rs = 0.40, p = 0.063).