Characterization and use of the ECV304 autoantigenic citrullinome to understand anti-citrullinated protein/peptide autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are highly specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In vivo, ACPAs target peptidyl-citrulline epitopes (cit-) in a variety of proteins (cit-prot-ACPAs) and derived peptides (cit-pept-ACPAs) generated via the peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) isoenzymes. We aimed to identify a cell line with self-citrullination capacity, to describe its autoantigenic citrullinome, and to test it as a source of autocitrullinated proteins and peptides.

Assessing process of care in rheumatoid arthritis at McGill University hospitals.

Objective: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), quality indicators (QIs) are tools used to measure process of care. This study aimed to assess performance of selected QIs from the 2004 Arthritis Foundation's QI Set at 2 major sites of a university network of teaching hospitals.

Methods: The charts and electronic hospital records of 76 RA patients were audited to determine adherence to QIs.

A retrospective review of rheumatology referral wait times within a health centre in Quebec, Canada.

It is important that inflammatory arthropathies such as rheumatoid arthritis be diagnosed promptly so that treatment can be administered in a timely fashion. However, there is considerable evidence that this process of care is delayed in many people. The aim of the study is to assess wait times between primary care referral and rheumatology assessment for new-onset inflammatory arthropathies.

The use of infliximab in academic rheumatology practice: an audit of early clinical experience.

Objective: To audit a first clinical experience of treating rheumatic disease patients with infliximab in the setting of an academic tertiary care rheumatology practice.

Methods: The infusion history of patients referred to the McGill University Health Centre during the first 18 month period of a special access program for treatment with infliximab, a tumor necrosis factor-a antibody, was audited for disease characteristics, dosing schedule for infliximab, concomitant treatments, response rate, and side effect profile.

Results: Forty-one patients received a total of 300 infusions of infliximab over a period of 9 +/- 5 months (mean +/- standard deviation).

Autoantigenic posttranslational modifications of proteins: does it apply to rheumatoid arthritis?

There are many posttranslational modifications of proteins of which all are homeostatically important either to carry out a particular structural or functional role or to allow efficient recycling of the amino acid constituents. An important feature of the modified proteins is the acquisition of autoantigenicity. That notion should have been recognized for years with the modifications of immunoglobulin G that constitute new targets for rheumatoid factors.