Anti-Carbamylated Fibrinogen Antibodies Might Be Associated With a Specific Rheumatoid Phenotype and Include a Subset Recognizing Epitopes of Its γ Chain One of Which Is Not Cross Reactive With Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibodies.

To identify the targets recognized by anti-carbamylated protein antibodies (anti-CarP) in patients with early Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), to study the cross-reactivity between anti-CarP and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and to evaluate their prognostic value. 331 patients (184 RA and 147 other rheumatisms) from the Very Early Arthritis (VErA) French cohort were analyzed. We performed mass spectrometry analysis of RA sera displaying anti-CarP activity and epitope mapping of the carbamylated fibrinogen γ chain to identify immunodominant peptides.

Soluble vascular endothelial (VE) cadherin and autoantibodies to VE-cadherin in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with etanercept or adalimumab.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical value of sVE and anti-vascular endothelial-cadherin antibodies (AAVE) in RA treated with etanercept or adalimumab combined with methotrexate.

Methods: This was an 18-month prospective multicenter study in which patients had active RA, requiring TNF antagonist. sVE rates and AAVE titers were measured respectively by dot blot and ELISA.

Infections induced by low-dose corticosteroids in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic literature review.

Objective: To study the association between infection risk and low-dose corticosteroids (LD-CT, defined as a daily dose <10mg/day of prednisone) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Data Source: a systematic review of the literature up to June 2009 was performed. Data extraction :all type of infections: bacterial, viral and postoperative; infection severity, RA activity, RA severity, comorbid conditions.

Can rheumatoid arthritis responsiveness to methotrexate and biologics be predicted?

This review briefly recapitulates the existing markers predictive of RA responsiveness to treatment, focusing on MTX alone or combined with a biologic. In addition to the demographic and clinical factors, an update is provided of the predictive biomarkers identified by large-scale gene and protein analyses that generated new insights into the ability of high-throughput analysis of biological systems to select new potential indicators. Among the large-scale analysis tools now available, pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics (including transcriptomic and proteomic approaches) have been shown to provide such new putative biomarkers of therapeutic responses.

[Cutaneous aseptic abscesses, manifestations of neutrophilic diseases].

Background: Neutrophilic skin disease includes several entities: Sweet syndrome, pyoderma gangrenosum, erythema elevatum diutium, Sneddon-Wilkinson sub-keratous pustulosis, and neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis. We report two cases of aseptic abscesses which correspond to the deepest anatomoclinical form of neutrophilic dermatosis.

Case Reports: A 28-year-old man was hospitalized for fever and abdominal pain with bloody diarrhea in relation with Crohn's disease.