title: Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies in patients affected by HCV-related arthritis.
abstract: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection can induce immunological disorders with different clinical expressions such as arthritis, Sjogren Syndrome and various forms of vasculitis. Retrospectively, the prevalence of anti-Cyclic Citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) in a group of patients affected by HCV-related arthritis with positivity for Rheumatoid Factor (RF) and the eventual correlations with RF and/or Anti-Nuclear Antibodies (ANA) and articular involvement were studied. Thirty patients with arthritis were selected from a population of 380 subjects affected by HCV infection. Each patient was evaluated by clinical examination (23 denoted poliarticular and 7 mono-oligoarticular involvement), by X-graphic aspects of joint involvement (8 patients presented joint erosions), by ANA, RF and anti-CCP positivity. Ten of the HCV-related arthritis patients (33.3 percent) presented positivity for anti-CCP, without significant correlation between such parameter and ANA, RF and articular involvement. Anti-CCP resulted positive in 4 out of the 8 patients with joint erosions, and only in 6 out of the 22 patients without joint erosions. Such frequencies analyzed by chi square resulted with no significant differences. Our patients presented an interesting prevalence of the positivity for anti-CCP. These data are cause to consider the specificity recently attributed to this parameter in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Federico II University Medical School of Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riccio
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Postiglione
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: La Dogana
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spanò
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marzocchella
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tarantino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000097:blood*; D001168:Arthritis / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology*; D015535:Arthritis, Psoriatic / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000276:immunology; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000276:immunology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; C487763:cyclic citrullinated peptide