title: [The association of the disease activity of rheumatoid factor positive vasculitis and the level of rheumatoid factor].
abstract: Rheumatoid factor (RF), an autoantibody against the Fc portion of denatured IgG, has long been recognized as an important biologic marker not only for rheumatoid arthritis but also for other auto-immune diseases. In this study, we measured the level of serum RF in four patients with RF positive systemic vasculitis using laser nephelometry. Three patients were diagnosed as polyarteritis nodosa and the other patient was diagnosed as systemic vasculitis without the finding of typical necrotizing vasculitis from biopsies. In the result, we found that the level of RF paralleled the disease activity in these cases. When active phase of the disease, the level of RF showed very high, and after the treatment combined with plasmapheresis, corticosteroid and immunosuppressive agent, the level of RF decreased in accordance with CRP, ESR and clinical features. These suggested that RF was the disease specific marker for RF positive vasculitis and beneficial informations for proper diagnosis and better treatment could be provided by measurement of the level of RF in patients with RF positive systemic vasculitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II, School of Medicine, Hokkaido University.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jodo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Atsumi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ogura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Amasaki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsutsumi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Onishi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujisaku
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry; D010488:Polyarteritis Nodosa / Q000276:immunology; D012217:Rheumatoid Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014657:Vasculitis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D012217:Rheumatoid Factor