الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 159 |  |  |
| | | from | 159 | | |
Abstract
RA is a common autoimmune disease characterized by joint inflammation that leads to destruction of bone and cartilage. Early diagnosis of RA helps in better disease control and reduction of permanent disability. Anti-CarP antibodies are new antibodies targeting carbamylated proteins, which are produced by a chemical reaction in which the amino acid lysine undergoes post-translational modification to homocitrulline in the existence of cyanate. These antibodies were found to predict the development of RA in arthralgia patients, and they may have value in RA diagnosis alongside RF and anti-CCP antibodies.The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum anti-CarP antibodies in RA patients, and assess their relation to clinical data, laboratory data, and radiological damage. The study included 2 groups: the case group; which included 90 RA patients who were recruited from Physical medicine, Rehabilitation, and Rheumatology outpatient clinic at Mansoura University Hospital and the control group; that included 90 healthy subjects of matching age and sex.Our study demonstrated that RA patients showed significantly higher positivity for anti-CarP antibodies in comparison to the controls (p<0.001). 29 out of 90 RA patients were positive for anti-CarP antibodies. Also, serum levels of anti-Carp were significantly higher in patients as compared to controls (p<0.001). Moreover, anti-Carp antibodies were found in 25.7% of anti-CCP negative patients. As regard the diagnostic value, the sensitivity and specificity were 32.2% and 96.7% for anti-CarP, 61.1% and 97.8% for anti-CCP, and 66.7% and 91.1% for RF respectively. The highest test accuracy was that of anti-CCP antibody (79.4%), and on analyzing ROC curves of the three antibodies, anti-CCP had highest area under the curve (AUC) than both anti-CarP and RF. The AUC was 0.770 for anti-CCP, 0.684 for both anti-CarP and RF.We found that adding anti-CarP to both RF and anti-CCP yielded higher specificity (100%), and higher test accuracy (60%) than that of RF and anti-CCP.Conclusion: Anti-Carp antibodies are detected in the sera of some RA patients including anti-CCP negative ones. Their sensitivity is lower than anti-CCP and RF; however they showed high specificity, thus they could be useful to test beside anti-CCP and RF.