A diverse spectrum of vasculitic syndromes exists including systemic rheumatoid vasculitis (SRV), which sometimes occurs as the first manifestation of severe rheumatoid factor (RF)-positive rheumatoid arthritis.1 So far, no convincing laboratory parameter has been determined for the diagnosis of SRV, which helps in distinguishing rheumatoid vasculitis from other types of small-sized or medium-sized vessel vasculitides. The aim of our study was to estimate the potential diagnostic value of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies among the systemic vasculitides.2

A total of 27 consecutive patients with SRV at vasculitis diagnosis were included in the study;3 27 patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) without vasculitis, matched for age, sex and disease duration with the SRV group, and 151 patients with primary systemic small vessel vasculitis (PSV) (50 patients with Wegener granulomatosis (WG), 50 patients with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) …