New Assay for Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis

摘要

Axis-Shield Plc recently announced that it has completed the development and manufacturing of a new assay for anti-CCP, used in the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), to run on Abbott's Architect~R family of automated immunoassay analysers. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by inflammation of the lining of the joints, causing pain and disability. The disease occurs in about one in a 100 people and is particularly prevalent in older people. RA occurs in 2-3 times more women than men. "The introduction of tests recognising anti-citrullinated protein antibodies has caused a revolution in rheumatology. The antibodies may occur in the blood long before the onset of symptoms and the anti-CCP test is superior to rheumatoid factor (RF) regarding diagnostic specificity for RA, and is often associated with potentially more severe disease course and outcome", reports Dr Thomas Skogh at the Linkoping University Hospital in Sweden.