RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Antiendothelial cell antibodies in patients with Wegener's granulomatosis: prevalence and correlation with disease activity and manifestations.
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP 1027
OP 1031
VO 34
IS 5
A1 Jodi K Sebastian
A1 Alfred D Mahr
A1 Sohail S Ahmed
A1 John H Stone
A1 Zurina Romay-Penabad
A1 John C Davis
A1 Gary S Hoffman
A1 W Joseph McCune
A1 E William St Clair
A1 Ulrich Specks
A1 Robert Spiera
A1 Silvia Pierangeli
A1 Peter A Merkel
YR 2007
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/34/5/1027.abstract
AB OBJECTIVE: Previous studies in small cohorts of patients with Wegener'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's t test, chi-square and Fisher'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.