RESEARCH - Diagnostic utility of anti-CCP antibodies for very early RA

[Guest guest]

J Rheumatol. 2006 Aug 15; [Epub ahead of print]

Diagnostic Utility of Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies for Very

Early Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Matsui T, Shimada K, Ozawa N, Hayakawa H, Hagiwara F, Nakayama H, Sugii S,

Ozawa Y, Tohma S.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic utility of anti-cyclic citrullinated

peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies with other serological markers including

rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-agalactosyl immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody,

and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 in very early rheumatoid arthritis

(RA). METHODS: Serum concentrations of anti-CCP antibodies, RF,

anti-agalactosyl IgG antibody, and MMP-3 were measured in 262 patients with

RA ( " total RA " ) including 55 patients with disease duration of less than 6

months who had not been treated before entry ( " very early RA " ) and 116

patients with rheumatic diseases other than RA. RESULTS: The diagnostic

sensitivity of anti-CCP antibodies was 82.4% in total RA and 67.3% in very

early RA and was lower than that of RF (84.0% total RA, 83.6% very early RA)

and anti-agalactosyl IgG antibody (90.5%, 90.9%), whereas specificity,

positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy were the best among

markers tested both in total RA and in very early RA. The presence of either

anti-CCP antibodies or RF increased the sensitivity, but any combination of

serological markers was not significantly better in diagnostic accuracy than

anti-CCP antibodies alone. The rates of RF-positive subjects in anti-CCP

antibody-negative patients both in total RA (43.5%) and in very early RA

(61.1%) were higher than those of anti-CCP antibody-positive subjects in

RF-negative patients (38.1% and 22.2%, for total RA and early RA,

respectively).

CONCLUSION: Measurement of anti-CCP antibodies, by itself, is useful for the

diagnosis of RA; however, combined use of anti-CCP antibodies with RF may be

more useful than either method alone for the diagnosis of very early RA.

PMID: 16924694

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=1\

6924694

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org