Intra and Inter-Rater Variability in the Interpretation of White Blood Cell Scintigraphy of Hip and Knee Prostheses.

White blood cell (WBC) scintigraphy plays a major role in the diagnostic approach to periprosthetic infections. Although the procedure has been standardized by the publication of several guidelines, the interpretation of this technique may be susceptible to intra and inter-variability. We aimed to assess the reproducibility of interpretation between nuclear medicine physicians and by the same physician and to demonstrate that Cohen's coefficient is more unstable than Gwet's coefficient, as the latter is influenced by the prevalence rates.

Anti-carbamylated protein antibodies as a clinical response predictor in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with abatacept.

Objectives: Carbamylation is an irreversible post-translational modification of proteins. The presence of anti-carbamylated protein antibodies (anti-CarP) has been observed in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study was focused to verify whether anti-CarP antibodies can be used as a predictive factor of clinical response to abatacept (CTLA4-Ig) in RA patients.