Dr Cush Thank you for your wonderful valuable education site and information.
However, the ACR /EULAR 2010 criteria require a score of 6 or more. I am surprised that you state that anti-CCP and RF are negative in 30-50% of RA patients. Thus these patients then score 1 for duration of symptoms for 6 or more weeks, 1 for abnormal ESR and or CRP.. Thus they will need to have involvement of >10 joints (with at least one small joint) - and a score of 5 to fulfil the ACR /EULAR 2010 RA Criteria. If they have 10 or fewer joints involved, they will score 3 and NOT fulfil the criteria for a score of 6 or more. Do all these RF/anti-CCP patients have more than 10 joints involved so that we can classify them as RA.
I humbly seek clarity on this matter as there are studies which have reported difficulty with fulfilling the criteria in RF and anti-CCP negative patients. Please clarify
Girish M Mody MD, FRCP, Master ACR Emeritus Professor, School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Dr Cush Thank you for your wonderful valuable education site and information.
However, the ACR /EULAR 2010 criteria require a score of 6 or more. I am surprised that you state that anti-CCP and RF are negative in 30-50% of RA patients. Thus these patients then score 1 for duration of symptoms for 6 or more weeks, 1 for abnormal ESR and or CRP.. Thus they will need to have involvement of >10 joints (with at least one small joint) - and a score of 5 to fulfil the ACR /EULAR 2010 RA Criteria. If they have 10 or fewer joints involved, they will score 3 and NOT fulfil the criteria for a score of 6 or more. Do all these RF/anti-CCP patients have more than 10 joints involved so that we can classify them as RA.
I humbly seek clarity on this matter as there are studies which have reported difficulty with fulfilling the criteria in RF and anti-CCP negative patients. Please clarify
Girish M Mody MD, FRCP, Master ACR Emeritus Professor, School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal