With passion for rheumatology! The evaluation of the inflammatory status is crucial for the assessment of disease activity and therapy response in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, psoriasis arthritis or microscopic polyangiitis. A promising new biomarker in this context is the increasingly important inflammation parameter circulating calprotectin (cCALP). Calprotectin in […]
With passion for rheumatology! Recently, three new fluorescence patterns were added to the classification tree of the International Consensus on Antinuclear Antibody Patterns (ICAP)1. ICAP is an initiative of international scientists with the goal of evaluating the large number of ANA patterns in a standardised way. ANA (antinuclear antibodies) are biomarkers for different autoimmune diseases,
With passion for rheumatology! Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases encompass a wide range of different inflammatory joint, tissue and vascular diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis. They are diagnosed on the clinical history, imaging techniques, and serological tests. Antibody detection is a useful diagnostic tool and can provide essential information for
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune-mediated myasthenic disorder with the main symptom of exertion-related muscle weakness. The disease results from functional loss of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) at the motor end plate due to attacks of different autoantibodies (AAb). Autoantibodies against nicotinic AChR are detected in around 80% of MG patients. AAb against muscle-specific
With passion for rheumatology! Autoantibody testing is becoming increasingly important in rheumatological diagnostics. It delivers crucial information for differential diagnostics and sometimes even allows prediction of the disease progression or helps in the choice of therapy. Before diagnostic use, all serological tests undergo thorough investigation. They are only approved when they meet the respective criteria.
