@article {Sebastian1027, author = {Jodi K Sebastian and Alfred D Mahr and Sohail S Ahmed and John H Stone and Zurina Romay-Penabad and John C Davis and Gary S Hoffman and W Joseph McCune and E William St Clair and Ulrich Specks and Robert Spiera and Silvia Pierangeli and Peter A Merkel}, title = {Antiendothelial cell antibodies in patients with Wegener{\textquoteright}s granulomatosis: prevalence and correlation with disease activity and manifestations.}, volume = {34}, number = {5}, pages = {1027--1031}, year = {2007}, publisher = {The Journal of Rheumatology}, abstract = {OBJECTIVE: Previous studies in small cohorts of patients with Wegener{\textquoteright}s granulomatosis (WG) or antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis have yielded conflicting data regarding the prevalence of antiendothelial cell antibodies (AECA), ranging from 8\% to 100\%, and the use of AECA as a measure of disease activity. We examined a large, well-characterized cohort of patients with WG and active disease for the presence of AECA. METHODS: Serum from subjects with WG who participated in a clinical therapeutic trial was collected at baseline, when all subjects had active disease. Clinical manifestations and disease activity were documented using the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score for WG (BVAS/WG). Serum AECA (IgG) was measured by cyto-ELISA using unfixed human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The AECA positivity cutoff was determined using 71 healthy control samples. Statistical analyses utilized Student{\textquoteright}s t test, chi-square and Fisher{\textquoteright}s exact tests, and linear regression. RESULTS: AECA were detected in 34 of 173 (20\%) evaluated serum samples. Mean BVAS/WG did not differ between patients with (7.3 +/- 3.2) or without AECA (7.0 +/- 3.3) (p = 0.58). Among the 34 patients positive for AECA, the antibody titer did not correlate with disease activity (BVAS/WG; r = 0.09, p = 0.60). There were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of major clinical manifestations between patients with or without AECA. CONCLUSION: AECA, as measured using HUVEC, are not highly prevalent among patients with active WG, are not associated with specific clinical manifestations, and do not correlate with level of disease activity.}, issn = {0315-162X}, URL = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/34/5/1027}, eprint = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/34/5/1027.full.pdf}, journal = {The Journal of Rheumatology} }