Monoclonal rheumatoid factors (RFs) of the major Wa cross reactive idiotype group have been shown to express exclusively VKIII subgroup light chains and VHI subgroup heavy chains. A VKIII associated cross reactive idiotope (CRI) (17-109), however, was shown not to be exclusively expressed on IgM paraproteins having rheumatoid factor activity or to be present at increased levels in the sera of p...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the relationship between rheumatoid factor (RF) titre, smoking and HLA-DRB1 alleles coding a "shared epitope" (SE) in relation to anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) positivity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS RA patients (n = 658) attending rheumatology clinics in Cornwall, UK (cohort 1) were stratified according to RF and ACPA titre, and smoking pack years a...

PURPOSE To study the prevalence of eye manifestations in the local rheumatoid arthritis (RA) population, as well as to know if the presence of rheumatoid factor (RF) and antinuclear antibodies (ANA) affect this profile. To study if there is association between eye manifestations and patient's articular functional index, age at diagnosis and illness duration. METHODS We reviewed 198 charts of ...

Hyperglycaemia and/or oxidative stress can cause IgG to be modified by advanced glycation end products (AGE). Three patients with aggressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and vasculitis are described who have high titres of IgM antibodies against AGE-modified IgG (IgM anti-IgG-AGE). Diabetics and randomly selected patients with rheumatic diseases, including 50 additional RA patients, were tested fo...

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a lifelong autoimmune inflammatory disease of unknown origin. An early diagnosis RA could improve the outcome. Several autoantibodies have been found in patients. Objective: To evaluate incidence against Sjögren's syndrome antigen A (SSA) and double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (dsDNA) patients to detect association between their presence severity mark...

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of tobacco smoking and rheumatoid factor (RF) isotypes on disease activity and joint damage in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS One hundred early RA patients were followed prospectively for 2 yr. They were evaluated at recruitment and at 6 and 24 months. Sociodemographic information included smoking history, and radiographs of hands and feet were obtained...

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptides (CCP) in a group of patients with a diversity of rheumatic diseases. METHODS 249 consecutive sera from an arthritis clinic sent for rheumatology testing were selected for testing with the anti-CCP2 assays and for the presence of rheumatoid factor (RF). Patient charts were reviewed for demographic information,...

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of a gelatin based Waaler Rose assay (Serodia-RAH) for the detection of rheumatoid factor (RF) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: RF was measured by Serodia-RA and rate nephelometry in 90 patients with RA according to the revised ACR criteria and 102 patients with rheumatological diseases other than RA. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, lik...

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of second and third generation anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP2 and anti-CCP3) assays in Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to identify the potential advantages of anti-CCP3 diagnosis in rheumatoid factor (RF) negative RA patients. Methods: Serum samples were obtained from 148 RA patients and 120 cont...

The HLA-DRB1 gene was reported to be associated with anticitrullinated protein/peptide autoantibody (ACPA) production in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. A new classification of HLA-DRB1 alleles, reshaping the shared epitope (SE) hypothesis, was recently found relevant in terms of RA susceptibility and structural severity. We investigated the relevance of this new classification of HLA-DRB1 ...