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    Arthritis Res Ther. 2006;8(4):R122.

    Diagnostic value of anti-human citrullinated fibrinogen ELISA and comparison with four other anti-citrullinated protein assays.

    Vander Cruyssen B, Cantaert T, Nogueira L, Clavel C, De Rycke L, Dendoven A, Sebag M, Deforce D, Vincent C, Elewaut D, Serre G, De Keyser F.

    Department of Rheumatology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. Bert.VanderCruyssen@Ugent.be

    We studied the diagnostic performance of the anti-human citrullinated fibrinogen antibody (AhFibA) ELISA for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a consecutive cohort (population 1) and evaluated the agreement between the AhFibA ELISA and four other assays for anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPAs) as well as rheumatoid factor in patients with longstanding RA (population 2). Population 1 consisted of 1024 patients with rheumatic symptoms; serum samples from these patients were sent to our laboratory for ACPA testing within the context of a diagnostic investigation for RA. Ninety-two of these patients were classified as having RA according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria and 463 were classified as non-RA patients. Population 2 consisted of 180 patients with longstanding RA and was used to assess agreement and correlations between five ACPA assays: anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)1 and anti-CCP2 antibodies were detected using a commercially available ELISA, AhFibA using ELISA, and anti-PepA and anti-PepB antibodies using line immunoassay. Applying previously proposed cut-offs for AhFibA, we obtained a sensitivity of 60.9% and a specificity of 98.7% in population 1. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis could not detect a significant difference in diagnostic performance between the AhFibA ELISA and anti-CCP2 assay. Performing a hierarchical nearest neighborhood cluster analysis of the five different ACPA assays in population 2, we identified two clusters: a cluster of anti-pepA, anti-pepB and anti-CCP1, and a cluster of AhFibA and anti-CCP2. In conclusion, we found that AhFibA and anti-CCP2 antibodies had similar diagnostic performance. However, disagreement between ACPA tests may occur.

    PMID: 16859515 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

    PMCID: PMC1779401

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