title: Is seropositive rheumatoid arthritis becoming less severe?
abstract: We have followed a community-based cohort of recent-onset arthritis for eight years. In addition to Waaler-Rose and latex agglutination tests we used class-specific enzyme immunoassay for the determination of rheumatoid factors (RFs). Eighty-seven patients had erosions by the end of the follow-up period. The seropositive cases in each RF assay were divided into three groups of equal size according to the mean strength of RF reactivity for three or four available follow-up specimens. The radiological index values in the high-titer groups were no higher than the values for the seropositive cases on average. Thus, no severity gradient according to RF titer could be demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aho
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tuomi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Palosuo
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaarela
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Von Essen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Isomäki
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor / Q000032:analysis*; D012698:Serologic Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D012217:Rheumatoid Factor