SUMMARYIn some patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), vasculitis is a clear clinical manifestation, mentioned as rheumatoid vasculitis (RV). Autoantibodies directed againsi endothelial cells (AEA) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of this disorder, and it has been suggested in a number of studies that testing for AEA should be included in diagnosing RV. To test this hypothesis, we have evaluated the presence of AEA in sera of patients suffering from various autoimmune diseases, employing an ELISA with fixed cultured endothelial cells (EC). In ail the groups of patients ELlSA-positivc sera were present. A significant diflerence in percentage of positivity was found between the RA and RV group {P < 005). In addition, our results indicated that nol only antibodies directed against antigens on the EC membrane were detected, but atso antibodies directed against intracellular components like DNA. histones and cytoskeletal components. Therefore, we also tested all these patient sera on unfixed intact EC using indirect immunofluorescence followed by FACS analysis. Whereas in the total patient population 34 out of 65 patients were AEA-positivc as determined in the ELISA, only seven patienis were weakly positive when examined by flow cytomelry. We conclude that: (I) an ELISA on fixed EC does not specificaHy detect AEA, A positive test result is. however, to some extent correlated with the occurrence of vasculitis. and tnay therefore be helpful in diagnosing this disease: (ii) EACS analysis is a more suitable method than ELISA to measure the presence of membrane-specific AEA in patient sera; (iii) speciftc IgG-AEA are less common in patients suffering from autoimmune disorders than was assumed previously.
SUMMARY In order to evaluate the incidence and aetiology of hypergastrinaemia 53 patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis were examined for gastric acid secretion, fasting serum gastrin concentration, circulating parietal cell antibodies, and some parameters of the activity of inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis. The basal and maximum acid output was found to be subnormal in this group (P
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