The clinical utility of anti-CCP antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

The most common chronic arthritis in rheumatology is rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which can affect between 0.5%-1% of the population (1). In addition to causing years of pain and disability, it also decreases life expectancy by an average of about a decade (2). The last 2 decades have witnessed early and intensive use of potent disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, such as methotrexate and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, leading to revolutionary changes in the disease outcome, such as reductions in the risk for serious joint damage and disability and probable increases in life expectancy.