IgM rheumatoid factors capable of complement fixation and activation are commonly present in the sera of adults with rheumatoid arthritis. Hidden complement fixing IgM rheumatoid factor has been demonstrated in the majority of patients with juvenile RA and hidden agglutinating IgM rheumatoid factors have been demonstrated in the serum of adults with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. We studied...

To measure rheumatoid factors specific for patients with rheumatoid arthritis an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to measure rheumatoid factors in human serum that bind a cross-reactive determinant shared on human and other mammalian IgG. Rheumatoid factors that cross link human IgG and sheep IgG in a double binding ELISA were almost completely specific (greater than 99%)...

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most common debilitating rheumatological disorders. A subcutaneous rheumatoid nodule usually occurs in advanced cases of rheumatoid arthritis and is also a hallmark of the chronicity of the disease. They are also the most common extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis. We present a case of a giant rheumatoid nodule, developed on the left elbow.

Complement activation correlates to rheumatoid arthritis disease activity, and increased amounts of the complement split product C5a is observed in synovial fluids from rheumatoid arthritis patients. Blockade of C5a or its receptor (C5aR) is efficacious in several arthritis models. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of C5a and C5aR in human rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arth...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disease. Anti-cyclic citrullinated (anti-CCP) antibodies have a high specificity for rheumatoid arthritis and levels correlate with disease severity. The focus of this study was to examine whether analyzing anti-CCP levels could increase the power of linkage analysis by identifying a more homogeneous subset of rheumatoid arthrit...

The prevalence of clinically evident interstitial lung disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is approximately 10%. An additional 33% of undiagnosed patients have interstitial lung abnormalities that can be detected with high-resolution computed tomography. Rheumatoid arthritis-interstitial lung disease patients have three times the risk of death compared to those with rheumatoid arthrit...

rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory joint disease with 1 percent prevalence in community which presents with symmetrical polyarthritis of hands with inflammatory behavior. several studies in recent years were conducted for evaluation of inflammatory cytokines such as il1-α (interlukin 1α) and tnf- α (tumor necrosis factor) in rheumatologic disorders including rheumatoid arthrit...

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic data indicates that rheumatoid arthritis is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Epicardial adipose tissue is a novel cardio-metabolic risk factor. Our aim was to evaluate epicardial fat thickness (EFT) using echocardiography in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy control subjects. Secondly, we investigated relationship between epica...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease affecting fewer men than women. We systematically reviewed the literature on impact and self-management of rheumatoid arthritis in men. A total of 28 papers were included and grouped into two categories: psychosocial impact of rheumatoid arthritis, and coping and self-management. This review finds gender differences relating to quality of life, work, di...

BACKGROUND Levels of pentosidine (representative of advanced glycation end-products) in sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis are increased when compared with sera of other diagnoses or healthy controls. These levels have been reported to correlate with clinical indices of rheumatoid arthritis activity and with laboratory markers of inflammation. The purpose of this study was to find out i...