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Clinical and epidemiological research
Concise report
Diagnostic value of anti-MCV antibodies in differentiating early inflammatory arthritis
  1. L Damjanovska1,2,
  2. M M Thabet1,3,
  3. E W N Levarth1,
  4. G Stoeken-Rijsbergen1,
  5. E I van der Voort1,
  6. R E M Toes1,
  7. T W J Huizinga1,
  8. A H M van der Helm-van Mil1
  1. 1Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
  2. 2Rheumatology Clinic Dr Dimitar Arsov, University Sts Cyril and Methodius, Skopje FYR, Macedonia
  3. 3Department of Internal Medicine, Assiut University Hospital, Assiut, Egypt
  1. Correspondence to Dr M M Thabet, Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands; m.thabet{at}lumc.nl

Abstract

Objectives 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%.

Conclusion The diagnostic performance of the anti-MCV test in the differential diagnosis of early arthritis is lower than that of the anti-CCP tests.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.2009.108456

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    Footnotes

    • LD and MMT contributed equally to this work

    • Funding This work was supported by a EULAR Scientific Training Bursary to LD. The work is supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, the Dutch Arthritis Association and grants from the European Commission (FP6 AutoCure and FP7 Masterswitch).

    • Competing interests None.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Commissie Medische Ethiek (the Leiden institutional review board).