title: Antibodies to arthritis-associated microbes in inflammatory joint diseases.
abstract: IgM, IgG and IgA class antibodies against Yersinia, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Borrelia were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a group of 340 unselected patients with a recent inflammatory joint disease. The control group consisted of 340 and 100 healthy blood donors using Borrelia-ELISA and other ELISAs, respectively. Of all the patients, 27.4% had increased antibody levels against at least one of the microbes tested. The prevalence of positive antibody levels was highest in Yersinia antibodies (17.9%). The corresponding figures for Salmonella, Campylobacter and Borrelia were 7.0, 6.2 and 1.8%, respectively. Patients with entero-arthritis or clinically typical reactive arthritis who had not had gastrointestinal or urogenital symptoms previously had the highest prevalence of the microbial antibodies (67.6 and 40.7%, respectively). These findings indicate that arthritis may often have a reactive etiopathogenesis without recognized gastrointestinal infection, emphasizing the importance of microbial serology in the differential diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Turku University, Finland.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mäki-Ikola
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Viljanen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tiitinen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Toivanen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Granfors
mesh_terms: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology*; D001170:Arthritis, Infectious / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D001898:Borrelia / Q000276:immunology; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000032:analysis; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis; D012475:Salmonella / Q000276:immunology; D015007:Yersinia / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M