OBJECTIVE To determine whether time to treatment following symptom onset differs between RA patients according to autoantibody status. METHODS A single-centre retrospective analysis of a UK early RA inception cohort was first undertaken to identify those components of the patient journey that differed by serological subtype. Data from a UK national audit of early inflammatory arthritis patien...

BACKGROUND Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) are associated with increased risk for rheumatoid arthritis. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of the presence and levels of ACPA on arthritis development in patients with arthralgia. METHODS Patients with arthralgia positive for ACPA or IgM rheumatoid factor (IgM-RF) were tested for the shared epitope (SE) and were prospectively fol...

Rheumatoid factors (RF) and the disease-specific anti-citrullinated protein autoantibodies (ACPA) coexist in the joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients where they probably contribute to synovitis. We investigated the influence of IgM and IgA RF on the FcR- and complement-dependent effects of ACPA immune complexes (ACPA-IC). When stimulated by ACPA-IC formed in the presence of IgM RF or Ig...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be divided into two major subsets based on the presence or absence of antibodies to citrullinated peptide antigens (ACPA). Until now, data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have only been published from ACPA-positive subsets of RA or from studies that have not separated the two subsets. The aim of the current study is to provide and compare GWA...

BACKGROUND This study examines: 1) alveolar bone loss (ABL), a hallmark of periodontitis, in anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-positive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients versus control patients with osteoarthritis (OA); and 2) the association of ABL with RA disease activity and ACPA concentrations, including multiple antigen-specific ACPA. METHODS This multicenter case-control study...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) exhibit specific changes in Fc glycosylation prior to the onset of arthritis. METHODS Serum samples of patients with ACPA-positive arthralgia (n=183) were collected at baseline and at various time points of follow-up. 105 patients developed arthritis after a median of 12 months (IQR 6-24) and were classified as having ...

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) and their association with known rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk factors in the general population. METHODS Lifelines is a multidisciplinary prospective population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Cross-sectional data from 40 136 participants were used. The detection of ACPA was performed by measuring ...

Objectives To determine the prevalence of anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) and their association with known rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk factors in the general population. Methods Lifelines is a multidisciplinary prospective population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Crosssectional data from 40 136 participants were used. The detection of ACPA was performed by measuring ant...

INTRODUCTION The antigen recognition pattern of immunoglobulin M (IgM) could, when directed against protein antigens, provide an indication of the antigenic moieties triggering new B cells. The half-life of IgM is short and memory B cells against T-cell-dependent protein antigens typically produce IgG and not IgM antibodies. In this study, we analyzed whether a difference exists between the fin...