Biomarkers of chronic airflow limitation and COPD identified by mass spectrometry.

Rationale: COPD affects 300 million people worldwide and is the third leading cause of death according to World Health Organization global health estimates. Early symptoms are subtle, and so COPD is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Thus, there is an unmet need for biomarkers that can identify individuals at early stages of the disease before clinical symptoms have manifested.

In early rheumatoid arthritis, anticitrullinated peptide antibodies associate with low number of affected joints and rheumatoid factor associates with systemic inflammation.

Objectives: To investigate how individual rheumatoid arthritis (RA) autoantibodies associate with individual signs and symptoms at the time of RA diagnosis.

Methods: IgA, IgG, IgM rheumatoid factor (RF), antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide version 2 (anti-CCP2) and 16 individual antibodies against citrullinated protein (ACPA) reactivities were analysed centrally in baseline sera from 1600 patients with RA classified according to the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria. These results were related to C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), number of swollen and tender joints (SJC and TJC), 28-joint disease activity scores (DAS28 and DAS28CRP), global disease activity evaluated by the patients and Health Assessment Questionnaire, all obtained at baseline.

Nasal IL-13 production identifies patients with late-phase allergic responses.

Background: There is limited knowledge on how local cytokine secretion patterns after nasal allergen challenge correlate with clinical symptoms especially with regard to the "late allergic response," which occurs in approximately 40% to 50% of patients with allergy.

Objective: We sought to characterize the immunologic and clinical nasal responses to birch pollen allergen challenge with a special focus on the late allergic response.

Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, birch pollen-allergic participants were challenged with birch pollen extract (n = 20) or placebo (n = 10) on 3 consecutive days.

Associations with thrombosis are stronger for antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin antibodies than for the Sydney criteria antiphospholipid antibody tests in SLE.

Objectives: Antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin complex antibodies (aPS/PT) are risk factors for thrombosis, yet further validation of their clinical relevance in different ethnic groups is required. We investigated the performance of aPS/PT of IgA/G/M isotypes among Sudanese and Swedish systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients.

Methods: Consecutive SLE patients/matched controls from Sudan (n = 91/102) and Sweden (n = 332/163) were included.

Rheumatoid arthritis autoantibodies and their association with age and sex.

Objectives: To examine the association between individual rheumatoid arthritis (RA) autoantibodies, sex and age at RA onset.

Methods: Anti-CCP2, IgA-, IgG- and IgM-RF were analysed centrally in baseline sera from 1600 RA patients diagnosed within one year of RA symptom onset. Cut-offs for RF isotypes were determined at the 98th percentile based on RA-free controls, close to the 98.

High IgA antiphospholipid autoantibodies in healthy Sudanese explain the increased prevalence among Sudanese compared to Swedish systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

Objectives: IgA antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) are prevalent in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients of African American, Afro-Caribbean and South African origin. Nevertheless, data from North Africa are lacking, and most studies use manufacturer-suggested cut-offs based on Caucasian controls. Therefore, we compared aPL isotypes in Sudanese and Swedish SLE patients using nation-based cut-offs.