Role of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in diagnosis and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis

Antibodies to citrullinated proteins/peptides (ACPAs) are the second serological marker to have recently been included in the 2010 ACR/EULAR Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Classification Criteria, which are focused on early diagnosis and therapy. This review discusses their history and some clinical aspects of ACPAs, focusing on the diagnostic utility of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies as a marker of RA as compared to the widely used rheumatoid factor (RF). Simultaneously, this review aims to raise physician awareness and interest in anti-citrullinated vimentin antibody (anti-Sa/anti-MCV), another member of the ACPA family, which appears to have a better predictive value as a marker of RA than anti-CCP or RF and correlates closely with disease activity and therapeutic response among patients with RA

Serological markers in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis — a clinician’s perspective

The paper summarises the present knowledge of the role of autoantibodies in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The starting point were the current rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria. The first part presents the diagnostic features of rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies, while the second part provides the answers to the essential clinical questions related to their use. This article, as opposed to more comprehensive papers in the field of immunology, focuses on daily rheumatological practice. Forum Reumatol. 2018, tom 4, nr 3: 169–17

Bone densitometry by radiofrequency echographic multi-spectrometry (REMS) in the diagnosis of osteoporosis

The paper summarises the present knowledge of the new bone densitometry method called radiofrequency echographic multi-spectrometry (REMS). This ultrasound-based approach enables the evaluation of bone mineral density (BMD) in the hip and the lumbar spine. During REMS densitometry, a fully automatic algorithm performs a series of spectral and statistical analyses involving both echographic images and corresponding “raw” (unfiltered) radiofrequency signals. This provides the identification of the region of interest (ROI) and the calculation of standard densitometric parameters: BMD, T-score and Z-score. Nondiagnostic scans and artifacts are automatically excluded by the algorithm, reducing the risk of false results. A recently published multi-center study has demonstrated high diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of this innovative method in the diagnosis of osteoporosis. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first Polish paper on REMS densitometry.  Forum Reumatol. 2019, tom 5, nr 2: 81–8