CBS) Six million Americans suffer from inflammatory arthritis, a temporary condition that causes painful swelling in joints, CBS News correspondent Tony Guida reports. Half of them will develop rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks itself with painful results that can be devastating to joints, cartilage and bone.
Now comes word of a new study offering hope of preventing rheumatoid arthritis before it starts.
"The blood test can be positive in some people before they even develop classical rheumatoid arthritis," Dr. Steven Abramson says, referring to a blood test given by Dutch researchers to patients with inflammatory arthritis.
The test determines if they possess a certain antibody. If they do, the study shows, treatment with methotrexate - a long-time arthritis drug - can prevent their condition from growing into full-blown rheumatoid arthritis.
The study also has important news for doctors.
"Physicians want to treat patients early, but were afraid to treat everyone early because there would be too many side effects," Dr. Abramson says.
But, as the study shows, the risk of serious side effects is worth the reward - for certain patients. Knowing who those patients are, and treating them early, says Dr. Abramson, will help define the future of medicine. As will understanding who not to treat.
"Part of the answer is not to treat people who are not going to respond to your drug," he adds.
SO..... What's the test?
Am I missing something, cuz I don't see the actual name of the test.
??This is confusing to me as well. It seems one has to develop inflammatory arthritis first and then half of those that do could be tested? Is this what they are saying? Because I didn't develop inflammatory arthritis first. And inflammatory arthritis is using treated with biologics and is gone for good. That isn't the case with RA.
And what criteria does the GP have in using the blood test? Is it only for those with inflammatory arthritis? Or, is it something we can test our children with? I still think automatically putting some people on MTX based on just a blood test is a risky proposition.
Very confusing.
The antibody is called anti-ccp. This new study is suggesting taking what they already know a step farther - treating people with postive anti-CCP (and presumably future full blown RA) with MTX sooner, before the "traditional" dx can be made, and before damage has even begun in some cases.
(I'm sure the MTX pharma will be pleased.
This from the Cleveland Clinic: "Although most serologic studies are not sensitive or specific for RA in general, the use of antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP antibodies) has recently been demonstrated to have specificity for RA of more than 90%. In patients with an atypical presentation or when another diagnosis is equally likely (eg, hepatitis C), anti-CCP antibodies may be useful in confirming a diagnosis of RA."
Oh, well I don't have a positive anti-ccp.
I'm not an atypical case I guess.
Since both my mother and my sister also had RA, this gives me encouragement for possibilities if any of my children develop symptoms. Thanks for posting.