The level of anti-MCV antibody in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are rheumotologic diseases which disturb quality of life and cause severe morbidity and mortality. For this reason, early diagnosis and treatment are important for both of these diseases. There are many studies showing elevated serum levels of antibodies against citrulinnated vimentin (anti-MCV ab) in RA patients but, much is not known about levels of anti-MCV antibodies in AS. That?s way we designed this study to measure the anti-MCV antibody levels in the RA and AS patients and explore whether it is associated with disease activity or not.The study groups consisted of 60 AS, 60 RA patients and 50 healthy controls. The anti-MCV ab levels were measured by ELISA method. The relations between anti-MCV ab levels and various laboratory and disease activity parameters like ESR, CRP, BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI, extraarticular findings in AS and ESR, CRP, RF, DAS 28, HAQ score in RA were evaluated.The anti MCV antibody levels of RA patients were found to be significantly higher than AS patients and the control group. Anti MCV antibody were positive in 32 of 60 RA patients. The sensitivity and spesifity of the anti ?MCV antibody levels were 53,3% and 98% in RA patients respectively. Only RF is found to be correlated with Anti ?MCV antibody levels among the clinical parameters. Anti MCV levels in AS patient were significantly higher than control group and anti MCV antibody were positive in 4 of 60 AS patients. The sensitivity and the spesifity of anti MCV antibody for AS were 6.6% and 98% respectively. No correlations could be found between anti MCV antibody levels and clinical parameters.In conclusion, althoug the anti MCV antibody levels are highly spesific for RA and AS, it has a low sensitivity