BACKGROUND The anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) test has a high sensitivity and specificity for rheumatoid arthritis, although CCP is not the physiological target of the autoantibodies. Citrullinated fibrin is abundant in inflamed synovium OBJECTIVE To assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of antibodies against citrullinated fibrinogen (ACF), a soluble precursor of fibrin, in comp...

The goal of this prospective longitudinal study was to determine the serological profile of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to test whether antikeratin antibody (AKA), antiperinuclear factor (APF), anti-RA33 antibody and antinuclear antibodies (ANA) had an additional diagnostic value when prescribed after rheumatoid factor (RF)-detecting methods. Sixty-nine patients with early polyarthriti...

A fluorimetric immunoassay has been used to assess reactivity of rheumatoid factor (RF) with both histone proteins and other basic polycations (poly-L-lysine, poly-L-ornithine, and protamine) bound to an immobilised tyrosine-glutamic acid polyanionic copolymer. Isolated RF preparations can bind to histone proteins in this assay, notably to H3 and H4 histones, and this activity was always masked...

Introduction To determine the clinical significance of anti-CCP (anticitrullinated cyclic peptide) in Korean patients with JRA. Rheumatoid Factor (RF) is a non-specific serologic test in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) but the anti-perinuclear autoantibodies are found in adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) recently. One of these autoantibodies can detect epitopes called citrulline. The authors ...

OBJECTIVES To analyse the most common MEFV (Mediterranean fever gene) mutations and polymorphisms in an elderly population free of chronic inflammatory disease (n=164), and explore possible associations between hsCRP (high sensitive C-reactive protein) and RF (rheumatoid factor) levels with MEFV mutations and polymorphisms. METHODS An elderly group free of chronic inflammatory disease was cho...

OBJECTIVE The co-occurrence of rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) positivity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is well described. However, the mechanisms underlying the potential interaction between these 2 distinct autoantibodies have not been well defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiologic and molecular interaction of ACPAs and RF and its as...

The prevalence of HLA-DR4 in relation to age at disease onset was calculated in 226 consecutive female patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A slight increase in the prevalence of DR4 with age at RA onset was found. This appeared to be due to the low percentage of rheumatoid factor (RF) positivity in the youngest age groups; the DR4 prevalence in the RF positive patient...

Chronic childhood arthritis affecting more than four joints during the first 6 months of disease is defined as polyarthritis.1,2 In the classification of the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR),2 polyarthritis is further categorized as rheumatoid factor (RF) negative if tests for RF are negative, and RF positive if RF is detected on two occasions at least three months a...

An indirect ELISA for the determination of each isotype (IgM, IgG, IgA, IgD, IgE) of rheumatoid factors (RF) was performed with sera obtained from 77 patients with either classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 319 controls, using rabbit IgG as the antigen. The results were compared with those of a commercial latex agglutination test, using denatured human gamma globulin as the anti...

Sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis regularly contain inhibitors of complement fixation (CF) to antigen-antibody complexes (Heimer and Levin, 1965). Removal of rheumatoid factor (RF) by absorption of sera with heat-aggregated human y-globulin resulted in a higher number of positives and a rise in CF antibody titre against antigens from herpes simplex, mumps, and morbilli viruses (Stanf...