Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies and Severity of Interstitial Lung Disease in Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective. to evaluate whether serum titers of second-generation anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-ccp2) are associated with the severity and extent of interstitial lung disease in rheumatoid arthritis (ra-ild). methods. in across-sectional study,39 ra-ild patients confirmed by high-resolution computed tomography (hrct) were compared with 42 ra without lung involvement (ra only). characteristics related to ra-ild were assessed in all of the patients and serum anti-ccp2 titers quantified. results. higher anti-ccp2 titers were found in ra-ild compared with ra only (medians 77.9 versus 30.2 u/ml,p<0.001). in the logistic regression analysis after adjustment for age,disease duration (dd),smoke exposure,disease activity,functioning,erythrocyte sedimentation rate,and methotrexate (mtx) treatment duration,the characteristics associated with ra-ild were higher anti-ccp2 titers (p=0.003) and + rf (p=0.002). in multivariate linear regression,the variables associated with severity of ground-glass score were anti-ccp2 titers (p=0.02) and with fibrosis score dd (p=0.01),anti-ccp2 titers (p<0.001),and mtx treatment duration (p<0.001). conclusions. anti-ccp2 antibodies are markers of severity and extent of ra-ild in hrct. further longitudinal studies are required to identify if higher anti-ccp2 titers are associated with worst prognosis in ra-ild. copyright © 2015 alberto daniel rocha-muñoz et al.