| Summary: | Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory rheumatic disease
characterized by the presence of autoantibodies. This study aims to determine the
sensitivity and specificity of anti-carbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies in
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in relation to rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic
citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies, C-reactive protein (CRP) as well as to
determine their association with disease activity score-28 (DAS28) and health
assessment questionnaire (HAQ) score. This study included 105 RA patients (48 RFpositive
and 57 RF-negative patients) conducted at Hospital Universiti Sains
Malaysia (HUSM) from January 2015 until February 2016. Fifty healthy controls
(HCs) were included. CRP, RF, anti-CCP and anti-CarP antibodies were measured.
HAQ was administered to each of the study participants. DAS28 of the 105 RA
patients was measured. The level of anti-CarP antibodies was significantly increased
in the RA patients compared to that in the HCs (p=0.042). The sensitivity and
specificity of anti-CarP antibodies in RA patients were 42% and 78%, respectively.
The presence of anti-CarP antibodies was significantly associated with RF (p=0.019)
and the HAQ results (p=0.010). However, there was no significant association ofanti-CarP antibodies with anti-CCP antibodies and CRP (p=0.564 and p=0.075,
respectively). Furthermore, a significant association between anti-CarP antibodies
with DAS28 was not found (p=0.165). This study provides further evidence that the
level of anti-CarP antibodies is significantly elevated in RA patients. In addition, this
study showed that anti-CarP-positive RA patients more likely to demonstrate
increased disability compared to anti-CarP-negative RA patients. Therefore, anti-
CarP antibodies have a potential to be further develop as a biomarker to aid in the
diagnosis and prognosis of RA.
|
|---|