OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence and diagnostic significance of antibodies against nucleosomes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as compared to five anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) assays. METHODS: The study included 305 patients with SLE, 125 patients with other autoimmune rheumatic diseases, and 415 healthy controls. Anti-nucleosome antibodies were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and ANA by immunofluorescence (IF) using Hep-2 cells. Anti-double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) antibodies were measured by three commercial ELISAs and by IF using Crithidia luciliae as antigen. RESULTS: Compared to three ELISAs for anti-dsDNA, the anti-nucleosome assay was less sensitive (30% vs. 29-69%) but equally specific (90% vs. 77-95%) for SLE. The most sensitive test was ANA (76%), and the least sensitive was Crithidia (13%). The correlations between the different assays were good (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). CONCLUSION: The anti-nucleosome antibody assay does not offer additional information compared to conventionally used anti-dsDNA tests in the differential diagnosis of SLE.

Antibodies, Antinuclear↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor predicts early remission in patients with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis treated with a single disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.

OBJECTIVE: To study the value of baseline serum levels of circulating soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) and soluble E-selectin as predictors of early remission in patients with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving a single disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) (SINGLE) or therapy with a combination of DMARDs (COMBI). METHODS: Baseline (n = 157) serum samples originate from the FIN-RACo (FINnish Rheumatoid Arthritis Combination therapy) trial, in which 195 patients with early and clinically active RA were randomly assigned to receive either SINGLE (initially sulfasalazine) with or without prednisolone, or COMBI therapy (sulfasalazine, methotrexate, hydroxychloroquine, and prednisolone). Of the samples, 76 were from SINGLE patients and 81 from COMBI patients. sIL-2R was measured by automated immunoassay analyzer and sE-selectin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: At six months, 7 (9% [95% CI: 4 to 18]) SINGLE and 19 (23% [95% CI: 15 to 34]) COMBI patients were in remission. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, sIL-2R <442 U/ml and COMBI therapy were the only predictors of remission. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve for sIL-2R level was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.62 to 0.95) in SINGLE and 0.57 (95% CI: 0.42 to 0.71) in COMBI (p = 0.006). In SINGLE, the optimal cut offpoint was 442 U/ml, lower levels predicting remission with sensitivity of 83% (95% CI: 73% to 91%) and specificity of 86% (95% CI: 42% to 100%). Likelihood ratio for positive test was 5.9 (95% CI: 1.6 to 32.8). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, sIL-2R <442 U/ml and COMBI therapy were the only predictors of remission. CONCLUSION: Low baseline serum sIL-2R level predicts early remission of patients with active early RA treated with a single DMARD.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Association of tumour necrosis factor a, b and c microsatellite polymorphisms with clinical disease activity and induction of remission in early rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To study the associations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) a, b and c microsatellite markers with 1) the clinical disease activity and 2) the induction of remissions in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with two treatment strategies. METHODS: In the FIN-RACo (FINnish Rheumatoid Arthritis Combination therapy) trial of two years, 195 patients with recent-onset RA were randomly assigned to receive either a combination (COMBI) (sulphasalazine, methotrexate, hydroxychloroquine, and prednisolone) or a single (SINGLE) (initially sulphasalazine with or without prednisolone) disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy. TNF a, b and c microsatellite and HLA-DRB1 typings were carried out in 165 (79 COMBI; 86 SINGLE) study completers. RESULTS: At baseline the 28 joint disease activity scores (DAS28) of the patients positive for TNFa2, a13 or b1 microsatellite markers were significantly higher than in the other patients. In the SINGLE patients the DAS28 improved comparably in patients with (n = 31) or without (n = 53) the TNFb1 marker (NS), while the DAS28 of the TNFb1-positive COMBI patients (n = 22) improved significantly more than that of the TNFb1-negative cases (n = 57) (p = 0.014). Respective 31.8% (7/22) and 28.1% (16/57) of the COMBI patients with or without TNFb1 allele achieved remission at one year. The corresponding figure in SINGLE patients were 0% (0/31) and 20.8% (11/53) (p = 0.006). At two years the remission frequencies in the TNFb1+/TNFb1- patients in the COMBI and SINGLE were 50.0%/38.6% and 9.7%/22.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Early TNFb1+ RA patients have more active disease but respond more favourably to COMBI treatment than the patients without this microsatellite allele. The finding may be of clinical relevance for the choice of DMARDs in early RA.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Experience with local immunosuppressive therapy in rheumatoid arthritis].

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Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Reactive arthritis.

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Adult↗