Objective: The hepatitis C virus infection is associated with arthritis. However, the clinical roles of the rheumatoid factor in patients who received anti-viral treatment are not as clear. Methods: To identify the association between the rheumatoid factor and the treatment response in hepatitis C virus infected patients, we enrolled patients who received anti-viral treatment with peg-interfero...

180 Canadian Family Physician • Le Médecin de famille canadien d VOL 52: FEBRUARY • FÉVRIER 2006 I is important for family physicians to understand the role of rheumatoid factor (RF) in management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Rheumatoid factors are antibodies that recognize the Fc portion of IgG molecules as their antigens; RFs can be of any immunoglobulin isotype (IgM, IgG, IgE)...

The existence of agglutinating substances reactive with autologous and isologous human gamma globulin (yG) has been recognized for some time. These substances were first found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and were consequently termed "rheumatoid factor" (RF). It is now clear that rheumatoid factor is not specific for rheumatoid arthritis, but occurs in individuals with a wide variety o...

OBJECTIVE To obtain information on the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis and on its recent trends in Finland. METHODS The study covered those subjects entitled to receive specially reimbursed medication for rheumatoid arthritis under the nationwide sickness insurance scheme in five out of 21 central hospital districts in Finland (population basis about one million adults) during three years: ...

Mast cell tryptase (MCT) is a key diagnostic test for mastocytosis and anaphylaxis. High serum tryptase levels are also one of the risk factors for adverse reaction in venom immunotherapy, yet occasional patients are seen with raised levels in the absence of either diagnosis. False positive results can be due to assay interference by heterophilic antibodies such as rheumatoid factor (RF) and hu...

We applied nonparametric quantitative trait linkage analysis to two rheumatoid arthritis quantitative phenotypes, IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide autoantibody titer measurements, using 5700 genome-wide Illumina single-nucleotide polymorphism genotypes on 658 Caucasian North American Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium families. Peak LOD scores for both quantitative ...