Rheumatoid factors found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis react with human IgG and with IgG from some other species. The levels of rheumatoid factor give some indication of prognosis, albeit a rather poor one in this highly variable disease. The high degree of variability may, in part, be due to differences in the fine specificity of the rheumatoid factor in each individual patient, leadin...

Pathogenic bone erosion is often associated with inflammation. The destructive bone erosion that is often seen in rheumatoid arthritis is probably due to the close proximity of inflamed tissues to bone. Over the past decade, major advances have been made in our understanding of the factors that are crucial in regulating osteoclast bone resorption. It is not surprising that these factors are exp...

Immune factors are currently believed to be important in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid synovitis. Several findings have suggested that immune mechanisms are operative within the rheumatoid joint; these include the detection of antiglobulins and low levels of complement in the synovial fluid (Hannestad and Mellbye, 1967; Ruddy and Austen, 1970), the detection of immunoglobulins and complement w...

godial (1), which constitutes its chemical defense and is stored in the mantle. Thus the ability of a nudibranch to elaborate its chemical defense has been demonstrated. Dendrodoris limbata also synthesizes the mixture of sesquiterpenoid esters (2) found in the digestive glands. We believe that these esters should be regarded as products of further metabolism of polygodial as a result of a deto...

INTRODUCTION Epstein-Barr virus exposure appears to be an environmental trigger for rheumatoid arthritis that interacts with other risk factors. Relationships among anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies, the shared epitope, and smoking status have been observed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis from different populations. OBJECTIVE To perform an association analysis of anti-Epstein...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular mortality is increased in rheumatoid arthritis. Possible reasons include an increased incidence of ischaemic heart disease or worse outcome after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). OBJECTIVES To assess the outcome of ACS in rheumatoid arthritis compared with case matched controls in the context of underlying cardiac risk factors, clinical presentation, and subsequent man...