Combination of Serological Tests (Anti-CCP Antibody, Rheumatoid Factor IgM ELISA and Latex Test) are more Useful in Detection of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Anindya Das,Chimanjita Phukan,Chitralekha Baruah

doi:10.3844/ajisp.2017.194.200

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a polyarticular and chronic inflammatory disease occurring throughout the world. To prevent significant joint damage, early diagnosis and proper treatment is of paramount importance. Though patients are diagnosed clinically supported by radiography and serological tests, early disease may present with non-specific arthritis and absence of specific radiographic findings. Though anti-CCP antibody is used for the diagnosis and may be found in early disease, recently some variability of results has been observed in some studies. In this context present study was carried out to combine anti-CCP antibody, rheumatoid factor IgM ELISA and Latex agglutination test to observe the combined specificity and sensitivity of the tests and the tests were compared with each other to examine the correlation between them.

Highlights

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) may produce in many cases a significant level of morbidity (Arnett et al, 1988)
Though the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis is primarily clinical, based on signs and symptoms of chronic inflammatory arthritis with laboratory radiographic results providing important supplemental information, in many patients early disease presents with non-specific arthritis
The diagnosis was based on clinical features and “The New 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) criteria” for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and on the expert opinion of attending physician of Rheumatology OPD

Summary

Introduction

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) may produce in many cases a significant level of morbidity (Arnett et al, 1988). There is significant motivation among clinicians to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis patients, early in the course of the disease, because the recently developed disease modifying drugs and biological agents are notably helpful in long term outcomes of the patients (O’Dell, 2003). The overenthusiastic initiation of treatment with disease modifying agents, without diagnosing RA accurately can cause a lot of harm to the patient. It is very important to identify the patients who will have progressive, erosive disease, as early aggressive treatment may help them most (Lee and Schur, 2003). Though radiography is the most common imaging modality in RA patients and allows easy serial comparison for assessment of disease progression, the main disadvantage is the absence of specific radiographic findings in early disease, since visualization of erosions may only be seen later (Guermazi et al, 2004)

Methods

Results

Conclusion