* Department of Pathology, Midnapore Medical College, Paschim Medinipore, West Bengal
** Department of Medicine, SSKM Hospital, Kolkata-20
Online published on 1 October, 2011.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is a mutilating disease. Acro-mutilation can be prevented by early diagnosis & treatment. Rheumatoid factor becomes positive in fairly advanced disease. It is also positive in normal as well as in some unrelated diseases. Anti-CCP can diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis relatively accurately even pre-clinically as shown in this study.
CCP=citrulline containing protein epitope, Anti-CCP=antibody against citrulline containing protein, PAD=peptidyl arginine deamine, RA=rheumatoid arthritis
