Value of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the diagnostic value of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies (anti-MCV) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and compare it with anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP), rheumatoid factors (RF). Methods Commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit was used to detect anti-MCV antibodies in a group of 177 RA patients, 46 patients with other rheumatic diseases, and 48 healthy blood donors. At the same time, anti-CCP, RF were detected. T test and χ2 test were selected. Results The average concentration of anti-MCV was (523±376) U/ml in RA, (96± 55) U/ml in patients with other rheumatic diseases, (34±18) U/ml in healthy controls. Different threshold levels (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140 U/ml) for positive results were calculated bythe areas under the ROC curve (the areas were 0.521, 0.706, 0.769, 0.791, 0.816, 0.826, 0.822), then the best diagnosis efficacy for RA was determined as more than 120 U/ml. At this level, the sensitivity and the specificity for anti-MCV were 80.1% and 80.9% for RA diagnosis. The positive and negative predictive value were 92% and 67.8%. Comparing with anti-CCP, anti-MCV showed comparable specificity but higher sensitivity. And it's also better than RF apparently. If all 3 antibodies were detected at the same time, or anti-MCV combine with one of them, the sensitivity would increase to 95.7%. In addition, Anti-MCV showed positive in 32 of 67(55.2%) patients with RA whose anti-CCP was negative, meanwhile 31 of 59 (52.5%) patients with RA whose RF was negative. Conclusion RF and anti-CCP are complementary in diagnosing RA. The combination detection of RF and anti-CCP could significantly improve the specificity for the diagnosis of RA.