Measuring outcome in rheumatoid arthritis--which measures are suitable for routine clinical use?

adult SLE patients was noted between the presence or levels of antibodies to hsp90 and the presence or levels of rheumatoid factor. It is thus clear that the disease-specific occurrence of autoantibodies to hsp90 in adult SLE patients [1] and MRL/lpr mice [2] cannot be accounted for by the presence of RF. In our studies, we did not examine in detail the immune response to human hsp65. It would certainly be of interest, therefore, to examine whether the detection of autoantibodies to this human protein is complicated by the presence of RF. Unfortunately, the study of Lim and Sharif does not bear on the question since they chose to use hsp65 derived from Mycobacterium leprae in their study, rather than the human protein which would represent the ultimate target of any autoimmune response.