Diagnostic value of anti-MCV antibodies in differentiating early inflammatory arthritis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluates the diagnostic performance of the anti-CCP2, anti-CCP3 and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV) tests in differentiating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from other forms of arthritis in a clinical setting of early arthritis.


METHODS
In 917 patients with recent-onset arthritis (566 RA, 351 other diseases) and in 99 healthy controls the anti-MCV, anti-CCP2 and anti- CCP3.1 tests were performed and the test characteristics compared.


RESULTS
Comparison of the tests for differentiating RA from other causes of arthritis showed a lower specificity for anti-MCV (82.9%) than for anti-CCP2 (93.4%) and anti-CCP3.1 (90.0%). Similarly, the positive likelihood ratio for anti-MCV was also lower (3.6, compared with 8.7, 5.8 for anti-CCP2 and anti-CCP3.1). The anti-MCV test had a higher sensitivity (62% vs 56.9% and 58.1%, respectively). In psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthropathy and other arthritis anti-MCV antibodies had a prevalence of 15.2%, 13.9% and 19.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
The diagnostic performance of the anti-MCV test in the differential diagnosis of early arthritis is lower than that of the anti-CCP tests.
Damjanovska
L
L
Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Thabet
M M
MM
Levarth
E W N
EW
Stoeken-Rijsbergen
G
G
van der Voort
E I
EI
Toes
R E M
RE
Huizinga
T W J
TW
van der Helm-van Mil
A H M
AH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001168:Arthritis / Q000175:diagnosis; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000276:immunology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014746:Vimentin / Q000276:immunology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; D015415:Biomarkers; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D014746:Vimentin; C487763:cyclic citrullinated peptide